The Ground They Walk On
by Monkey pie225
Summary: Everyone is connected through something. It could be because of the people they know or just because they happen to pass each other on the street. The ground, both below and above it, can also connect people. It is what allows others to walk to each other and meet. With it new connections can be made.
1. Senzai Squad

**Disclaimer:** World Trigger is owned by Daisuke Ashihara

* * *

 **Chapter 1:** Senzai Squad

* * *

Border was roughly located in the middle of Mikado City. This was so that they had better access to the city as a whole. It was also to make sure that there was a definite area for the Gates to open.

Border was a protection against anything that came through the Gates. They had their specialized weapons to combat against those creatures that created fear in others. Their agents trained to take these creatures down to keep the stability of their world.

The agents were out into three main groups.

A-Ranks were the tops of the organization. A well known team from this group was Arashiyama Squad. They were the stars of Border.

B-Ranks were the general forces of the organization. They were the foot soldiers who would be best suited to protect the city more than anything else.

C-Ranks were the trainees of the organization. They could not use their Triggers outside if the Forbbiden Zone Border had set up. They were not much in the eyes of the higher ranks.

A fourth group existed, but there were only two people who belonged to that group.

Since B-Ranks were the majority of their fighting forces, if you were to ask someone from Border if they were one of those forces they would likely say they were.

"We're done here. Good work, everyone."

One particular squad from this group happened to be out and about.

"Boo~ I wanted to keep going for a bit! Tomo is still higher on the scale than me! He's four years older than me, so I need to catch up to him! I have four years to catch up on!"

They were one of the B-Rank Squads of Border.

The young girl who was currently pouting and complaining was rather young. Her pinkish hair was cut down to her shoulder blades with only the middle of her hair being different. The middle of her hair reached down to her knees. She gave off the feeling of a little devil, yet was still a B-Rank member.

The other two there gave her a look that was reminecant to scolding silbing.

The one to answer her complaints was a young blond girl. A flower hairpin could be seen in her hair. Her overall appearance was something akin to what someone would assume a fairy would look like.

"Sthénos, you don't need to compete with Tomoe-kun. You both have your strengths and weaknesses."

"Besides, aren't you actually older than him? True, your ID says that you're ten, but when we met you said you were around fifteen."

"That was just a guess! I don't know how old I actually am! I was let out for only a few missions! Well, either way, over here on Miden I'm ten years old!"

"Still, don't you have a better track record than him since you were sent out on those missions?"

"Those don't count! I'm talking here! Miden is a completely different thing! I mean, generally speaking, I have more kills than either one of you, but not as a Border agent! I have those kills as a Trion Soldier!"

"I see. I suppose you can look at it like that. Fine. Just make sure that this competition doesn't get out of hand. Also, do you have Tomoe-kun's consent for this rivalry?"

"It's not just Tomo! Yuzu, Aka, Shou, Shun, Yoshi! They're all my rivals!"

The fairy-like girl lightly shook her head.

Next to her was their captain, looking at them with a small smile. He may have put his own two cents into the conversation but left it up to the two girls.

Compared to the little devil girl and fairy-like girl he looked like a regular person. He was well-built with his muscles being seen under his uniform. What stood out was the contrast between his red hair that managed to cover his ears and his minty-green eyes. Overall he was a handsome man that even wore work goggles on top of his head.

They uniforms were same in color screen yet different in actual appearance.

The man's outfit consisted of a long, short-sleeved coat that stopped a little after his ankles. From the waist down the coat was open. A large belt was wrapped around his waist with part of it hanging out from the side and front. He had armbands that went from his wrist halfway up to his elbows. On his feet were boots that resembled an underground worker's.

The fairy-like girl also had a long, sleeveless coat that stopped at her ankles. From the waist down it was open with two small parts covering her upper-thighs. Unlike her captain's outfit her mid-drift could be seen through the criss-cross pattern that was on the coat. She had long gloves that connected around her middle fingers and ended just below her shoulders. Her shoes were lighter looking with socks that reached up to her knees. A flower could be seen in her hair.

The little devil girl had a short coat that stopped mid-back. She wore a skirt with tights under it that stopped just above her knee. The longer part of her hair was tied into small rails at the end of it. Her footwear consisted of boots that stopped under her knee and tights.

This was the B-Rank squad known as Senzai Squad. Their three main members were currently right here while their Operator was at Border's HQ.

Senzai Senshi put his hand to his ear while his two teammates.

"Teki-san, we're done here. Do you need us for anything else today? I was just going to write up the report and head out."

 _"I'm fine over here. I already told them that you guys are done for the day and that you would hand in the report."_

"Alright. Just make sure not to overwork yourself, okay? You tend to do that so we worry about you."

 _"I'm only twenty-five, no need to really worry just yet. Besides, if I can wrestle down big guys like Reiji-kun then I'm sure I'll be fine."_

"Haven't we asked you to stop doing that? I'm pretty sure that Kizaki-san doesn't like getting surprised by a random wrestling match. Even if Konami-chan enjoys seeing you two go at it."

There was a loud, rough laugh in the other end that told Senshi that he would not stop wrestling with Tamakoma's Kizaki any time soon.

He turned to the girls to see them looking at him, one with a grin and the other with a resigned look.

"What? Is something wrong?"

The to answer him was Shingai Ite, the fairy-like Sniper-girl.

She held her arms under her beasts while speaking in a calm tone.

"We know you've heard about what happened at that school. Tokieda-kun told me about it, somim sure you've heard. That C-Rank helping out by taking down those Marmods."

"Yeah. I've heard about it. Why?"

The little devil girl called Sthénos giggled into her hand while bouncing up to her captain.

"I'm sure you heard what kind of Trigger he used! Didn't you? You did, right!? Don't hide it, we know you know!"

"... Yes. I have heard that he used Raygust."

The fairy-girl let out a sigh.

"Look, just... Try not to be too weird around him. I need to go make sure that Piripiri is fine and I'm taking Sthénos with me. You know that with your Side Effect that this get...hectic. Please, don't use that as a way to bug that person."

"Do you really have such little faith in your captain? I might not be the luckiest guy around, but I wouldn't use that as a way to mess with others."

"Murakami-senpai, Yukimura-senpai and Kizaki-san would have to disagree with you on that."

"Murakami was an accident and Yukimura was my Side Effect going off. I didn't mean for things to end up like they did. Besides, they said it was fine and forgave."

"Uh-huh... Just don't do anything stupid."

Senshi nodded his head while ignoring Sthénos, who was laughing at their conversation.

There was a strange atmosphere around the squad as a whole but with no one around to tell that it was hard to figure out. Overall the team was odd in general.

With nothing more needing to be said, the three went their ways with Senshi going towards the Border HQ while the two girls went West of the base.

* * *

Senshi nodded to himself as he walked through Border HQ with a stack of papers in his arms. On his head was some yellow substance that looked like an egg yoke while there were stains all on his clothes. Even the papers looked like there were parts where ink was dumped on top of it.

Some people could presume that the poor man had a bad encounter with one Betsuyaku Taichi - a notorious devil when it comes to accidents - but he had no such meeting with the boy. This was all done by his own Side Effect.

As he walked around he could hear people wanting to know what was going on. Some were walking towards him to help with his papers but he had told them that he could manage on his own. There had been a group of girls who offered their handkerchiefs to wipe off some of the stuff on him. He had gladly taken their offer.

Now here he was, walking through the main all.

 _Wow. My bad luck is really going crazy today. Maybe I'll end up seeing that Raygust user today._

Senshi got a small smile as he thought about what he had heard.

He had always been interested in the Trigger called Raygust and so took quick interest into anyone who used it. Anyone that was no popular was always welcome near him. That wasn't to say things that were popular weren't fine.

There was just something about unpopular things that sparked his interest.

That was exactly why he stopped and stood still when he saw what was in front of him.

There, standing in front of him, was Jin Yuuichi with a plain-looking pain of glasses next to him. There was also a boy wearing those glasses.

Deciding on his next action, Senshi walked towards them while fixing the papers in his arms.

"Jin."

The S-Rank agent froze for a second before slowly turning towards the B-Rank. He slowly slid forward as if to hide the pair of glasses (and the boy) from view.

"Hey there, SenSen. You look... You really like life is taking a toll on you right now."

Senshi shook his head at Jin's sympathetic expression.

"It's fine. I'm use to it. Besides, when things get really unlucky for me, I end up having a nice surprise by the end of it." He tilted his head a bit to get a better look at the pair of glasses (and the boy) behind Jin. "I think I now know what that surprise is."

"Hey, look, we need to get going. Can this wait for later? I promise to properly introduce you two later on. Right now we need to go see the directors."

"Oh? That's good. I was just in my way there as well. I need to turn in these reports. We ended up behind and so I need to give this to them."

"Ah... I see."

"And so..."

Senshi quickly moved around Jin to see the pair of glasses (and the boy) looking up at him. He saw that the boy had black hair and a plain look that did not stand out too much. He was really lackluster compared to both Jin and Senshi.

Senshi put his papers in the ground before straightening his clothes and holding out his hand.

"Hello there, Megane-kun. I am Senzai Senshi, captain of Senzai Squad. I don't think I have seen you around here before."

"Mikumo Osamu. Nice to meet you. Um... If you don't mind me asking..."

Mikumo looked at the spots that were obvious on Senshi's clothes without wanting to be too obvious about it.

It was easy to see what he wanted to ask and so the unasked question was answered.

Senshi took a step back before turning around to get the paper on the ground.

Jin let out a small sigh as the three of them started walking away.

"I have a pretty nasty Side Effect, so this is pretty much a daily occurrence. My Side Effect is bad luck, so you can guess just how bad it can get. Mud and dirt getting all over me, randomly getting slapped by a girl for supposedly groping her, having animals attack me... In more ones than one... Still have some mental scare from those times... Getting a potted plant to land perfectly on my head, having the IV machine get messed up, have a Neighbor appear in front of me while I'm sick on the side of the road. Simple things like that."

"Some of those were things to worry about! Are you okay!? I know we just met but I'm actually really worried about you!"

"Oh. Thank you. It's fine, though. I have someone in my squad who counters that all. Besides, when things get really had then I happen to have something really good happen to me."

Jin decided to sit go with everything and add his own two cents into the mix.

"His Sniper has the opposite Side Effect as him. While he had bad luck, she had good luck. They counter each other rather well. They tend to sick near each other so that things don't get out of hand."

"I can see that happening with Senzai-senpai, but how can that happen with someone who has good luck? Wouldn't they be happy all the time?"

"You would think that, wouldn't you...?"

Jin saw the expression on Senshi's face and decided to enlighten Mikumo. He knew what to say since he had seen these things happen first hand.

"SenSen here tends to make people happy since they see how bad his luck is, so they are relieved that things happen to him instead of them. Although they still feel bad for him. His teammate on the other hand..."

It finally clicked in Mikumo's head.

If Senshi made people happy with his bad luck then his teammate having good luck made people sad that they couldn't have good things happen to them. It was a simple thing once it was thought about, but is was also a bit sad.

He looked at Jin to see the S-Rank nod his head.

That meant they both relied on each other. One would get to feel like things weren't always against him while the other wouldn't feel like everything was going her way. It was an odd counter but one that seemed to work well.

Mikumo was about to say something about it when he was cut off by Senshi speaking up again.

"Oh yeah, Jin, do you happen to know who the person was that was involved with the incident at the school a few days ago? I hear they use Raygust, so I want to meet them."

"Sorry. I don't know who that was. If I do happen to find out then I'll let you know. All I ask of you is for you guys not to attack Reiji-san randomly."

"I have never once attacked him. As for Teki-san... He loves to wrestle. I really can't control him. Why do you think I started working out? He never goes after women, so of course I'm the main target at times."

Mikumo looked over to see that Senshi truly did have good muscle mass. He felt his own arm a bit and noticed that it was certainly lacking in muscle. Compared to the redhead's muscles it was like there was nothing there. It was a sad thing.

This sad thing did not go unnoticed by the other two.

Seeing this as his fault, Senshi started talking again. This time is was not what either one of the other two was really expecting.

"Mikumo-kun, how about you work out with me sometime? Nothing too strenuous. Just some simple things that you would usually do in class. You can always reject the offer, of course. It is just a suggestion."

"Uh... Yeah. I'll think about it. Thank you."

"No problem."

Senshi gave a smile before making a right.

The two who were walking together first gave him a look as he started walking away.

He had said that he needed to see the directors to turn him his reports, so they figured he would just follow them all the way.

"Sorry, you two, but I'm actually headed this way. I do have my own way to go."

* * *

It was late in the day.

Most agents had been sent out by order of the directors to find and take down small Neighbors that had been creating irregular gates all around Mikado City. Each one was doing their best to find each small Neighbor so that the Gates would go back to their regular appearance.

Senzai Squad had quickly turned into one of the teams who had found the most amount of these small Neighbors. The reason for it was simple.

"There! There! There, there, there, there! Ah, there too! Hahaha! This is pretty fun! It's like finding bugs in the middle of summer!"

"No. This is nothing like that."

The little devil girl known as Sthénos continued to fire shot after shot at all the small Neighbors she found. She was moving from one area to the next, as if already knowing where they were. At this point there weren't too many around and there was just a trail of the Neighbors behind her.

Shingai's shots could be seen from time-to-time while Senshi continued to stab the small Neighbors with his odd blade.

Sthénos continued on while laughing the whole time.

The two older ones had trouble keeping up with her but managed somehow. It did not help that their Operator was laughing in their ears the whole time, which just encouraged Sthénos even more. Overall it was mentally taxing on the two teens there.

They were thankful once it was all over and no more of the small Neighbors were around.

Even with Sthénos seeming to be down, they knew that she would get over it rather quickly. Especially when she started looming around and found something interesting for her.

Until then...

"Hey! What are we going to do now!? There is still some light in the day! We have to go and do something! C'mon, c'mon! Get up and move you body! Your body! My body! Everybody, move your body! Your body! My body! Everybody, move your body!"

She started bugging them again.

The fairy-like Shingai let out a small sigh as she sat down.

"How this girl has so much energy is a mystery. It's really astonishing that she can be so active right now. I know we can't really get tired in our Trion Bodies, but I'm mentally done for the day."

"It's because she's never mentally there. While it is pretty adorable to watch, she is a handful. She's not the same as us, so she has much more energy to burn. Engery that she's even really burn. I suppose that's a good thing, though."

"Yeah. I would rather have her like this than being down and without any motivation. It would just be weird to see that."

Her captain gave a quiet nod while looking at their Shooter.

It was the look an older brother would give their younger sister. There was nothing to make fun of when she herself would give similar looks towards not only Sthénos but some of the younger agents as well.

She could readily admit that she had a soft spot of children. Although people like Ema Yuzuru and Midorikawa Shun were not children, they were still younger than her. That meant she had all right to protect them and cuddle them whenever she saw them.

Here was no different. Sthénos, while having the body of a ten-year-old, was, in actuality, around fifteen years of age. That meant she was younger than Shingai, giving her all rights to cuddling her and protecting her.

Even so, there was no real reason for that girl to he protected. She was far too active for others to do much to her.

"Do you think she will ever-"

Shingai stopped talking when she noticed her captain get up while their third teammate stopped moving.

She looked towards the Shooter to see her nose in the air, sniffing at something nearby.

Whenever she did this it meant one thing.

"A Neighbor is nearby."

Shingai quickly jumped to her feet with her Lightning ready to shoot.

The two older ones saw their teammate start to walk away with her nose still in the air. They knew to just follow her and deal with whatever came up along the way. For now they would just watch her back.

.

Sthénos could feel it.

Her nose was in the air, but that was mostly for show. It was just a feeling she had going through her body.

If it had been a Trion Soldier than she would have dismissed it, but this was different. It was a Neighbor that she had not felt before. Trion Soldiers had always been the same kind of feeling so having this different feeling meant that it was a different kind of Neighbor.

She knew that her teammates were right behind her so she just continued to follow her feeling. Where the feeling had lead her was to a park.

She continued on until she saw three people a few feet away.

One had brown hair, another had black hair and the third had white hair. Floating near the white haired one was what looked like a rice cooker.

"Hm? Jin and Mikumo-kun? Oh. He was a C-Rank. Interesting."

She could hear her captain talking behind her. Apparently he knew two of them. That didn't mean he knew the other two that were there.

"..."

It seemed that the small group had noticed her and her team since the four of them moved so as to hide the rice cooker with the white haired boy being the one to hide it.

Even so, she felt the feeling as she walked closer to them.

Once they were close enough, and her teammates were giving greetings, she walked up to the white haired boy and started "sniffing" him all over.

The boy didn't seem to mind and just looked at her with curiosity.

Once she was done "sniffing" him, she stood in front of him with a grin. She held out her arm while pointing to him.

She spoke up while looking at her teammates.

"It was you! Hahaha! You're the Neighbor!"

* * *

 **Senshi Senzai**

Captain, Attacker

\- 18 Years Old

\- Born Aug. 5

\- Aptenodytes, Blood Type AB

\- Height: 5'10"

\- Likes: Underground tunnels, Monster movies, Unpopular things, Tomatoes

 **Ite Shingai**

Sniper

\- 16 Years Old

\- Born Nov. 4

\- Chronos, Blood Type B

\- Height: 5'4"

\- Likes: Archery, Monster movies, Lemons

 **Sthénos**

Shooter

\- 10 Years Old (appearance), 15 Years Old (actual age)

\- Born May 5

\- Felis, Blood Type A

\- Height: 4'5"

\- Likes: Saying "No" to people, Helping others, Dragons

 **Fusegu Tekitai**

\- Operator

\- 25 Years Old

\- Born Feb. 10

\- Amphibious, Blood Type O

\- Height: 6'10"

\- Likes: Working, Wrestling, Candy


	2. Sthénos

**Chapter 2:** Sthénos

* * *

The first thing Senshi and Shingai did was put their weapons away.

They watched as Sthénos continued to "sniff" around the white haired boy like a dog would when they found something interesting. After her exclamation it had become a bit more clear as to why the white haired boy was there. With Jin also being there it just meant that Tamakoma was involved.

The white haired boy and Mikumo had looked worried when she pointed that out but their worries went down when they saw that Jin was just grinning.

"Hey! Did you know that if you can fly, you have wings!? How about the fact that Gods and Demons run alike!? Oh! Or that festival's have escorts!? Uwah! You can learn so much here! It's a good thing you came here! So, let's play!"

That was the time when the two older teammates got involved while grabbing her and covering her mouth.

Senshi walked forward and bowed to the small white-haired boy.

"Sorry about her. She really haven't met many people from other worlds. Seeing you here just made her happy is all."

"It's fine. I didn't even know that people here could tell someone like me apart from others. Most people can't figure it out."

[That is because she is not from Miden, Yuma. Or a person at all.]

The now named Yuma, as well as Mikumo, looked at the small girl with varying expressions. While the glasses (and the boy) looked surprised by this, the small albino simply nodded his head.

The two older teammates also nodded their heads.

"Introductions are in order!" The little devil-like girl did a pose before speaking once more. "I am your everyday, average Trion Soldier! I look ten years old, but I was made fifteen years ago! I think. Hey there, I'm called Sthénos!"

Mikumo chose to hide behind the glare of his glasses while thinking over what he just heard. He turned to the redhead he had met already with a blank expression

"Is that...her usual introduction?"

"She usually leaves out the whole 'Trion Soldier' thing from it. As for her 'age'... We really don't know. We still think she's around ten or so."

"I see..."

The ones who had yet to introduce themselves did is in a more respectable manner.

With everything done it left the group to talk about others things going on.

Senzai Squad had learned about the small Neighbors they had been spending the day taking out, as well as the one who supposedly found out about it. The news of it being Mikumo was surspsing to say the least.

Shingai tried her best to keep her captain away from the pair of glasses (and the boy) who were so plain that they seemed to just blend into the background. It was rather obvious that her captain had taken in interesting in the plain-looking glasses (and the boy wearing them). The only thing she could think of that would make things worse right now was if that same pair of glasses (and boy) also used Raygust.

Thankfully the chances of that were slim. Raygust, Teleport and a few other Triggers were rather unpopular, meaning not Mann people used them. The odds that this pair of glasses (and the boy) used those kinds of Triggers were-

"Oh. Just to let you know, Megane-kun here uses Raygust."

They were rather low.

"Oh!?"

Senshi was quick to grab Mikumo to examine his body up and down. He grabbed his arms before stretching them out and nodding a few times. He bent down to get a look at his legs, nodding after a few seconds. He looked all around from Mikumo's stomach to his back and nodded.

The others just watched on with different looks. Jin was grinning, Sthénos was laughing, Shingai was shaking her head, and Kuga was just looking with a confused look. It was a strange sight, but a rather entertaining one.

Once it was all done, Senshi moved back a bit to look at the pair of glasses (and the boy).

"Right. Someone like him... Raygust suits you. Good job. If you ever need any help, just ask. As a fellow Raygust user, I will help out to the best of my abilities."

Seeing that the pair of glasses (and the boy) was in too much shock to speak properly, Jin stepped forward to enlighten those who did not know what that was exactly about.

"SenSen loves unpopular things. Megane-kun, you are rather plain looking, so he has taken an interest in you. Your Trigger choice is also unpopular, meaning he likes it. Basically, you have a fan now."

"Correct. Remember, Mikumo-kun, no matter what others say, Raygust will always be a good Trigger. You can do many more things than if you were to use Scorpion or Kōgetsu. They might expect a beater and end up having to get through a tough defense. Or the opposite."

"Right..."

"And even if you go against a crazy Shooter or skillful Sniper, you can still block their attacks better than using Shield. It also doesn't matter if it's a blade or a shield, you will still be hitting hard. Also, it's heavy, true, but it's not without speed. Get the timing right and you can surprise any opponent."

"Yeah."

"Never forget that-"

"If you don't stop right now, I will you my calamity."

Shingai put a hand on her captain's shoulder while giving him a smile that screamed fear. There was so etching about the smile that told of unseen terror. That was the reason he had stopped talking for the moment.

Sthénos started laughing more as she countinued to bounce around Kuga.

It was an interesting situation that was rather entertaining for someone like Jin. Just seeing them all speak to each other like this without much of a care was fine with him.

With the many futures he could see, this kind of interaction was enjoyable. It was proof that even those futures could end well with times like these.

 _Now then... Let's what they decide on._

* * *

In a certain room within Border sat many people around a large table. They were all wearing suits and sat with their backs straight and expressions serious.

They were the ones in charge of managing Border - the directors.

The decision would made and agreed upon by all of them. The people effected by this decision would complain, they knew that, but they would also go along with it, knowing full well that their complaints would ultimately mean nothing.

The directors of Border all sat in a large room, thinking about what they were going to do.

It was something that may cause some issues, but those issues had been foreseen as well calculated by two of Border's most capable members.

"This incident has shown some interesting results. With these small insect-like Neighbors being a thing, shouldn't we make a real decision now? Before we have managed to attract them over here. These small ones seem to be the same."

"The difference is that they are harder to spot if you are not looking for them. If they manage to get outside of the city without any of us noticing then it will cause issues. Neighbors will be more frequent outside of city. That could get people to lose some trust in Border."

"Where else would it be? A city right outside of Mikado City?"

"Yes. The next city over would be fine. It is the farthest from Mikado City, meaning it would be more difficult to reach. The others we can get to relatively quickly. That city requires a train, or a long drive. It would be best to put it there."

The other directors seemed to think about it even more.

Their decision could end up with multiple results. Those results were reliant on so many factors and so many people that even Jin would have to take some time to figure things out. There was also the issue with unknown factors they can not think of right now.

Even so, things seemed to be going smoothly enough with most of the directors seeming to agree.

"Moving from the topic of location."

The one to suddenly change the subject was Director Shinoda Masafumi. He had been listening the whole time and now decided to speak his mind.

All attention went to him.

"We also need to decide on who we are sending. If this is going to be a big thing then we need to send a good amount of our forces. They must also be well off with this as well."

"They don't really have to agree, but we have made a list of options. Most, if not all, are at least B-Rank or above."

"What about those who are going to be joining during the next Enlistment Day?"

"We will send some over there. I'm sure there are some people over there that also would like to join. We are not just sending agents. I have asked for that man to also go and help. It was difficult since he did not want to leave his class."

"That man? Are you sure that is a good idea?"

"He is the best option. He is a trustworthy person."

There was a small scoff. Everyone in the room turned to the end of the table to see Commander Kido with a small smirk.

"He is just like you. Both of you are troublesome people."

"I cannot deny that." Director Shinoda cleared his throat before continuing. "Back to what I was saying. Three of the people on this list are three of his current students. We are also sending two of his former students as well."

"Those two... Please do not remind me that they are a part of Border."

The sound of some chuckling could be heard throughout the room. Some of them understood the small amount of gripe towards the two agents.

After that it was a continuation of the discussion.

The discussion concerning everything going on. Searching for the small Neighbors, the project they had been working on, the agents within the organization, and everything else that would help things going on.

It may have seemed like a slight problem but there were people who knew better. They knew that something big came when something small passed by. That was why this discussion was happening.

That was why they would continue until an answer was made.

They were the directors in charge of Border.

* * *

The cold night air was fresh and rejuvenating. There was always a mystical feeling to it when combined with the shining stars of heaven and the flowers blooming with pride. Each one added to each other that caused others to feel as if they were in another world.

That was how Sthénos saw things as she walked along the edge of a river.

She had decided to leave once her captain took the pair of glasses (and the boy) away to talk more with him and her second teammate took the child-like albino to go spoil him.

 _They are all so weird. It's really funny. But that weirdness is what makes out team all kinds of strong._

"'This is our calamity.' 'The hidden city is where we live.' 'This is the smile of Sthénos!' No one would actually think that those phrases are anything more than just weird things people say. I guess that's also why people don't expect our great combos when we say it."

She gave a childish laugh as she twirled around along the edge of the river.

It looked as if she was going to fall at any moment, but she never did. She kept her balance the whole time without having to worry about ever touching that water. Although that didn't mean she wouldn't jump in if she felt like it.

"'Underground Weirdos.' 'Popular Killers.' 'Idiots.' Hahaha! I really enjoy that last one. I've gotta give it up for people who think up these strange names!"

Miden was certainly a strange place. People would always contradict themselves, lie about the stupidest things, never confess something they want too, they even went as far as committing crimes against each other.

Even so. People were honest, stuck to what they saw as just, speak their minds as if it was nothing, they even make sure that those who commit crimes are captured and accused for what they have done.

It was confusing how they could have so many rules. Rules that seemed to be made to uphold as well as to break. For every person who was just and right, there was another who lied and cheated without a second thought. There were people like that in the place she had been created, but not to this extent.

Miden was advanced in every aspect, except when it came to Trion-based weapons and technology. They had create such interesting weapons to fight each other and had so little to fight against Neighbors. Their technology was astonishing, and could even help in such strange ways. Even so, it could not tell much about how much Trion a person had, or even how much potential they had.

Only Border had that kind of technology and weaponry.

That had been why Sthénos continued to live in this world without feeling the need to attack it.

She had free will, emotions, could feel pain, and many other things that usual Trion Soldiers lacked. The reason for this was unknown, but she knew that she had them for a reason. Whether that reason was to sympathize with others or to blend in more was a mystery.

She did blend in quite well with others, and she could understand how someone felt when they were sad.

There had been times when she met someone who had taken in toxins known as alcohol - something she could never understand - and told her multiple things about themselves. They spoke about their families, jobs, age, issues, love, and many other things. She had later learned from her teammates that those people were what most people called "being drunk" or "drunkards" and that she should stay away from those kinds of people. These kinds of times she had understood what they said and understood their sadness, joy, anger, regret, and many other feelings that she should not understand.

Then she had learned about the opposite of all that. The things like peace and quiet, being alone to think, taking walks so clear one's mind, and the like. Those times were meant for someone to think without having to hear other sounds that could interrupt their thinking. Sometimes those times were just there for someone to enjoy some quiet and take in everything around them.

That was what she was doing right now.

Each day she was learnig new things.

Just within this week she had learned a lot of things concerning people. Death was a foreign concept to her so her teammates had tried to teach her about it. She still did not understand it too much, making them give up on trying to teach her. Life was just as hard, if not harder. She knew that she was technically alive, but that's all she knew. She could not understand what dactyl it meant to "be alive" or the want to continually live until the expiration day.

One of the things she understood completely was the thing that people called "Shota" and "Loli" lovers. It had been one of the first things she had learned. After she had been touched oddly on a train - another amazing thing about this world - and was saved by Shingai she had been told about "perverts". Apparently they were people who liked to please themselves using other people as the sources. Also that the person who had touched her oddly was called a Lolicon since he liked small girls.

Her team had been quick to make sure that she should never go near people like that and should always stop things like that if she ever saw it happen to other children. She corrected them by telling them that she only appeared to be ten-years-old, but they still saw her as a child.

She could easily remember how Shingai had grabbed the man before flipping him over in one easy motion while giving him a dirty look. She had looked over Sthénos carefully before letting out a relieved sigh. Sthénos understood that this was a sign that the Sniper was glad that she could protect her that time.

Her teammates had always protected her in a way that made her feel special, but also in a way that made it feel like they trusted her enough to protect herself. They always stepped in when they saw that she could not do much because of her lack of knowledge on the issue. Just like on the train.

But then there were times when they were not around to protect her.

"..."

Times where they simply left to go about their own lives.

"So it's this one. I guess that makes sense. I am by water after all, and I can't really swim."

Right now was one of those moments.

"I wonder if any Trion Soldier is actually made to swim. Replica didn't look like he could swim. Maybe he can float?"

The water in the river started bumbling a bit. A large shadow could be seen in the moonlit water.

"Then again, this guy was always a great swimmer."

A moment later, the water flew into the air, spraying pseudo-rain all around the area.

Within the newly formed wall of water was a strange creature.

The creature had the appearance of a sea serpent with its body being long and ending with a fan-like tail. Four large fins could be seen near the front and back of its body. It's face had two red pincers with no actual mouth while two more pincers curved around from the side of its head. It had an odd color scheme of blue and white with gray lines running all along the body. A green orb could be seen on the front of its face.

Sthénos looked at this odd creature and laughed a bit.

It was not the tallest one she had seen before, but it still towered over her small stature. She only imagined what it would be like to someone who was even smaller than her, something she would have actually liked to see.

"Well, I'm glad that no one is around right now. Also, that it is one if the weakest ones."

Compared to other Neighbors, this one was around the same size as a Bambster.

She continued to smile as she pulled out her Trigger from her pocket and held it out.

"Trigger on!"

As she entered her new Trion Body she couldn't help think about how not a single Border agent would be able to tell that a Neighbor had made it through a Gate without detection. It had come up from the water like a sea animal, as if it was just waiting for the right moment.

In reality, the reason no alarms had been set off was due to Sthénos herself. Being a Trion Soldier meant that she had some odd functions concerning her general existence. One of those functions had been a sort of detection cancelation. So if a Gate were to open near her then no one would be able to tell, except her.

That was why she chose to do this fight on her own.

This familiar Neighbor had made it through a Gate without detection, so she felt like it was her fault that no one else would know about it. She had no way to control the Gates that opened up around her, so she felt so guilt about that, but she knew that she was interrupting Border's work when they opened up around her.

That was why she was fine going into battle alone.

Even if she was going in alone, that did not mean that others would not join in. Her own squad was always alerted whenever she entered her Trion Body. Their appearance on the scene was simply a matter of time.

Another thing function that she had as a Trion Soldier happened to be a sort of call to any other Trion-based weaponry. It was meant to alert any other Trion Soldiers when she needed assistance, but she had come to learn that it also worked with Triggers.

All she had to do at this point was wait things out until someone else came along or take it out all together.

So that's what she would do.

"Now then, let's begin!"


	3. Senzai Squad: Part 2

**Disclaimer:** Yuki is owned by TheAnimeTrain

* * *

 **Chapter 3:** Senzai Squad: Part 2

Sthénos was quick to move back as her hands started to glow and circles of green light swirled around her like a vortex. This was her way of shooting, being covered in her own shots so that she could fire at her opponents.

The further she got onto the land the more the Neighbor sunk into the water. If she continued into the city then the Neighbor would be fully submerged into the water, something she didn't want happening. That meant she had to continue this fight near the water.

 _Fine by me. The water can lessen some impact if used correctly. All I need to do is make sure to take it out quickly while using the water as a buffer._

Nodding to herself, Sthénos readied herself for the fight. The vortex of Trion swirling around her continued to move quickly around her, never stopping for a moment.

 _Let's take some test shots. To see if they've improved in making these._

The vortex of Trion that relentlessly swallowed her up started shooting out multiple shots. Each shot moved at odd angles, as if having minds of their own.

The Neighbor didn't seem fazed by this and simple went under the water.

The Viper shots that were fired smashed into the water, making it fly into the air. It crated a small wall of water that obstructed a bit of her vision.

 _But a small amount of water won't stop my shots._

True to what she thought, the shots continued even under the water. The on,y issue was that she couldn't control it as much since she could not see clearly into the water.

The Neighbor was quick to swim back up without the shots trailing it.

When it was above water again it did something that was expected.

Small scale-like shots were fired at her.

Instead of putting up a defense or dodging she simple fired her own shots from the vortex of Trion covering her.

The two attacks canceled each other out. It was only for a moment since the two continued firing at each other in rapid succession.

 _Oh? They improved it. It was never able to fire this much at once. What else can it do?_

She took a step closer to it whole changing up her shots. No longer were they weak shots that were being countered, instead they were now explosive shots that scattered the opposing scale-like shots.

Once they were scattered about in the air, another barrage of shots came through, hitting it dead on.

When everything was said and done she could see that it was still sitting there, looking at her. The attack had done some damage to the shell, but it could not go all the way through. Even the core seemed to be protected by a shield.

 _Aw. That's an issue. Now how am I suppose to get through?_

She started running along the edge of the river, making sure to keep a good enough distance so that the Neighbor could not reach her by simply jumping out of the water.

She was a distance fighter while acting as a Border agent. If she was acting as a Trion Soldier...

She shook her head violently, making her hair go all over the place. Those kinds of thoughts should not be had anymore. She was Sthénos of Border, it was that simple. There was no need to act like a Trion Soldier.

All she would do right now was fight as a Shooter and rely on her teammates.

" _This is our calamity."_

Like right now.

She saw something hit the shield that was protecting the core of the Neighbor. It was small and didn't make much of an impact, but that was not the reason it was shot.

She could see it now.

She could see the weakened part of it all because her Sniper teammate had marked that area. The area that she shot to create an opening.

Now all she had to do was...

"Salamander~!"

From within the vortex of Trion swirling around her, multiple shots moved around from all sides. They were all in separate areas yet it seemed as if they were all going to converge at the same spot.

The Neighbor tired to move out of the way of the shots.

The shots followed it.

"Sorry, sorry! But my Salamander will track down anything and everything! Especially when Shingai has marked you with Starmaker! You aren't escaping this attack!"

True to what she was saying, the shots followed the Neighbor all around until they made contact. And when they did...

"KABOOM! You go bye-bye!"

Multiple explosions went off on the single shield that had been protecting the core. Each one cracked the shield until the hits were attacking the core instead. Even then, the barrage didn't stop.

The whole scene that played out was as if an archer shot a single shot that turned into hundreds upon hundreds of shots.

It was actually a sight to behold.

The Neighbor stood no chance as it was pounded into the water, forcing another wall of water to fly up.

"Sthénos! Make sure it doesn't fall to the bottom of the river!"

"Huh? Oh!"

The bombardment, althought heavy and damaging, stopped immediately when she heard her teammate yell out to her.

She started placing Shield all around the Neighbor to make sure that it could not go any further into the water. Her teammate was doing the same thing.

Once they were sure that it would not fall into the river, they let out small sighs.

Sthénos gave a large smile while looking up at Shingai, who was looking down at her.

"That was fun, wasn't it?"

"I wouldn't say it was fun. It's a part of our job to take these things out. Although I'm glad that I managed to make it here on time."

"But I'm super strong! Even if I would be losing - which I wasn't - then I could have always-"

"Sthénos, you wanted to be like a human, right? So it's best not to do something like that. It could lead people to think that you are betraying us."

"But I'm not!"

"I know that. You're a good kid, so we don't have to worry too much about you. Just remember that it's always best to call out to anyone else than to deal with these by yourself."

Sthénos gave a happy nod while he head continued to be petted. It was a nice feeling to know that there were people who would continue to look out for her at all times. The fact that her teammates would at least help her out.

She knew that they weren't he only ones who would help her, but they were the first to help her.

"Oh. Ite-chan, you're here as well. I got the signal from Sthénos-kun and figured that I was the closest one here."

The two girls looked over to see a gruff-looking guy with stubble on his chin. He had dark blond hair that was spiked forward with a long hair swirl in front of his face. His upper-body was rather large and his expression was a soft one.

"Hello, Nanamagari-san. Sorry to disturb you tonight. Sthénos was just having some trouble here."

"I was not!"

Nanamagari Takumashī gave a laugh while waving his hand. He walked forward while to pat Sthénos on the head.

"It's alright. I was just on a delivery, so nothing wrong. I will say that I am glad to see that you two can handle such an odd looking Neighbor by yourselves. I'm sure the others will also be happy to know this."

"I'm sure Motoharu-san will start teasing our captain about not helping us out here. Hopefully that bad luck will kick in and get the both of them."

"Now, now. I know those two can be difficult at times, but that's no reason to wish for their pain."

"I suppose you're right. It's just a bit annoying when they start going on and on about 'what's popular and how unpopular things are much better'. Things like that are a troublesome to deal with."

"Even so, it means that they're lively. Don't forget, even if we are Border agents, we are still people. If we remained battle-focused the whole time then what enjoyment would we egg out of life?"

Knowing that he was right, Shingai nodded her head softly. There was no reason to deny the truth that he was saying, so it was just best to go along with it.

Even if they fought daily to keep Mikado City, they truly were people. She herself was still rather young so she still had a lot of things to do with her life. Many choices, many mistakes. If she only ever focused on taking out Trion Soldiers then she would live a rough life.

 _I would probably end up like Miwa. I want to help the guy but he's put of my jurisdiction. I just have to leave it to my captain to try and help him out._

She let out a small sigh before looking back up at the man.

While he grinned down at her, she looked up with a bit of a frown.

He knew exactly what was coming next.

"Nanamagari-san, what have I told you about going on late-night deliveries. I know that you are a grown man with a good amount of muscle, but there are still things people can do to you. Both guys and girls, they can come up with some crazy things. A handsome and muscular man like yourself would be a victim to a crazy girl or a perverted man. Please make sure to be extra careful."

"Yes, but what about you and Sthénos-kun? You are such a beautiful woman that any many would he after you. Meanwhile, Sthénos-kun is just a little girl."

"That's different. First of all, I want to thank you for that compliment. Second off, my Side Effect will protect me. My luck is far too good to get me into one of those situations. As for Sthénos... She is actually rather strong. As well as fast. I have no doubt that no pervert will get to her."

Nanamagari gave a small smile at her words, but still felt that she was completely naive about what could actually happen to her.

There were things that she never seemed to consider and things that she may not ever know about.

"I guess you're right... So, would you two fine young ladies please escort me around? That way I do not have to worry about such things happening to me?"

"That's fine. If it will make you feel better, we shall accompany you." She turned around to see Sthénos by the river. "Hey, Sthénos, come on! We are going to go with Nanamagari-san on his delivery!"

.

As the two older ones spoke, Sthénos had decided to make her way over to the fallen Trion Soldier. It was impossible for it to move on its own with no core acting as a power source anymore.

After a few seconds of staring at it, she pushed her hand forward until she had a good grasp on the core that was barely recognizable anymore. With one hard pull, it came out.

There was no hesitation in her next action.

She opened her mouth and let the core drop down her throat.

With an audible gulp she laughed a bit.

"I'm glad it still had some Trion left in it. When was the last time I had a meal like that? Those guys never let me eat the cores anymore, so I end up so hungry~"

As she spoke to herself she patted the destroyed Neighbor a few times.

There was a green glow coming from her stomach for a few seconds. It subsided as she stood up.

"Hey, Sthénos, come on! We are going to go with Nanamagari-san on his delivery!"

Hearing her name being called, she looked over to see her teammate and the man looming over at her. They were waving to her with the lights of the city behind them, making it a bit hard to see their faces.

Even so, she ran over to them while she left the Trion Body made from her Trigger.

"Hey, hey! Hey, Shingai! Can I please take these clothes off now~? It's just you and Taku now so there's no reason to keep them on!"

"No! That's more of a reason for you to keep them on! Do you realize how many people would call Nanamagari-san a pervert for being around a young girl who is naked! What's more, that's public indecency! It is against the law!"

"Aw~ But they feel so confining! I really just want to move around in nothing! Why can't our uniforms just be us naked? I'm sure even you would feel great! Besides, someone told me that when men and women get naked in front of each other that it means they really trust each other!"

"Who told you that!? It's not a lie, but that's under certain circumstances! Please, never get naked in front of a male! Ever!"

"It was Kan! Kan told me that SenSen has seen a lot of girls naked! He even told me that he got naked in front of SenSen! Something like, 'men can do all sorts of things together when they're naked and it won't be weird at all. I'm pretty sure girls even touch each other's-'"

Shingai quickly turned red before turning on her heels.

Nanamagari took a step back as the girl looked up at him with a furious look. He could see that her hands were on her hips while her Trigger was dangerously close to her right hand.

"Nanamagari-san, please tell that captain of yours to stop saying such improper and down right perverted things! At least stop telling them to Sthénos! If you do not tell him that then I will have to go to Mokuromi-san about this!"

"I-I swear that I never knew he was saying such things! All I ever hear him say concerning that kind of thing is that he took Sen-chan to a sauna! He never mentioned anything about generally getting naked in front of him!"

Seeing that he was speaking the truth, Shingai gave a huff before turning back to Sthénos.

Nanamagari let out a sigh of relief and made a mental note to tell not only his captain about what Sthénos had said, but also their Operator. At that point he would just move away from this issue and make sure to find away to calm down the girl later on, as an apology.

Shingai bent down to look Sthénos right in the eyes before starting to speak again.

"Sthénos, never, _ever_ listen to that man, okay? He is a terrible example for life and no one should even both looking at him. What he meant when he said all those things was that he took our captain to a sauna to relax, that's all. I'm sure nothing actually happened between them."

"Okay~! So is Kan one of people who I kick between the legs if I ever see them?"

Nanamagari was quick to give his input after hearing this.

"Wait, what was-"

"Yes. Kick him as hard as you can, okay? Well... Maybe not as hard as you can, but enough to where he ends up on the floor, okay? We don't want to make it so that he ends up not being able to reproduce. While that sounds like a terrible thought, he is a still a person."

"Got it!"

Nanamagari took out his phone right away and started messaging his captain on what his possible outcome could be before the two girls could look back at him. While he knew that his captain could be complete trash at times, he still respected him enough to make sure he didn't end up getting too hurt.

 _I really hope I can get Sen-chan or Tenki-san to get her to calm down..._

* * *

Tekitai Fusegu was a man of power who held no actual ability in fighting as a Combatant of Border. His position was Operator, but one wouldn't be able to tell from just looking at him. An older-looking man who was getting white hair already. He was a bulky fellow who was often confused for being a Combatant since he was larger than Kizaki of Tamakoma.

Although he could not fight in a Trion Body, his real body was very muscular. That was how he was able to easily keep his arm steady while Murakami Kou tried to push it down to the table.

Off to the side sat a sickly-looking boy with hair moved to the side so as to cover his left eye. He was watching the arm wrestling match going on with mild interest. It was obvious that his best friend would not be winning this match.

 _To be fair, Tenki-san just dragged him over without giving him an option._

It was a known fact that the large Operator had a habit of forcing other guys into contests of power. If it was someone like Murakami, someone who had around an average amount of muscle, he would get them to have an arm wrestling match with him. If it was someone like Kizaki or Hokari then they would be stuck actually wrestling with him.

Yuki was one of the few people who never had to deal with this kind of thing since his illness prevented him from doing anything too strenuous.

"Hey, Tenki-san, do you happen to know when SenSen will get here? I need to tell it to him face-to-face. Director's orders."

"He said he would be here soon. Apparently he had to calm a raging Shingai."

"Hm? Why was she mad? Was a kid hurt?"

"It seems that Kanchō said things to Sthénos he shouldn't have. That got her riled up and now she seems ready to shoot him with her bow and arrow."

"That's what he gets for telling Sthénos anything stupid. He should know by now that Fairy Queen will be ready to shoot him for that."

Seeing his best friend continue to struggle with the match, Yuki shook his head. He wondered why Murakami had decided to follow him and figured that it was because his Operator and other friend had told Murakami to make sure he was alright.

Yuki had an illness that was constantly killing him, meaning he would not have a guaranteed good time with his life. Even so, he continued on as if nothing was wrong. At some point he had become a gofer for the directors and that was currently why he was waiting in Senzai Squad's operating room.

There were three people in Border who he thought of as brothers. The first was a younger member named Hogo Oshiro. Another was the one currently losing an arm wrestling match. The last one was the person he was waiting for. They weren't too sure how it happened but they ended up getting close enough to really rely on each other.

That was why he wanted to tell Senshi some news face-to-face.

"Well, I might as well get-"

"Sorry I'm late."

Yuki let out a small sigh as he sat back up.

At the same time, Tekitai finished his match by slamming Murakami's arm onto the table.

"Ow..."

Murakami held his arm as a throbbing pain ran through it.

Senshi looked at him with a questioning look before shaking his head. He could figure out what had happened without thinking too much about it.

"Well you look like today hates you."

Senshi turned to Yuki before looking down at himself. His hair was covered in twigs, his clothes were torn in some places and he had what looked like oil on his face and neck.

"It isn't too bad today. Actually, it's pretty good today. This time I didn't almost get run over by a car or have to run away from a gang of thugs."

"I'm seriously worried about you, and I'm the one dying. Seriously, I never want to put you in the same room as Taichi. The room might not even be there afterwards."

"Actually, my luck seems to get better when I'm around him. And he doesn't really cause too many accidents either."

"This is some weird reverse thing going on. Well, I guess it's fine."

"Hey, Yuki, you had something to tell him, right? It's a bit important so stop avoiding it. It's actually a good thing that Teki-san is also here. That way he can also know what's going on?"

The two from the same team looked at each other before turning back to the sick boy. They had no clue as to what it could be but they figured that it really was important. It didn't help this Yuki let out a sigh as if he was resigning himself to what would happen after telling them.

The two took that as a sign to mentally prepare themselves.

"So, the directors have decided to move some of us to the next city over. They have made a smaller Border base there and we are suppose to go over there."

They thought about this for a few seconds before Senshi started to slowly speak.

"When are we suppose to be there...?

"A few of us are going later today to see what it looks like. You can come along. But generally speaking, we are suppose to be there in a week. They are giving us the option to move over there or just travel over there. The former is more advised."

Tekitai said nothing about it and left it all to his captain. He knew that he was the older one with more knowledge, but he wanted to give his captain the chance to make decisions like this.

After a minute or two, Senshi asked one question.

"Could I go see what it is like as well?"


	4. Senzai Squad: Part 3

**Disclaimer:** Akasora is owned by TheAnimeTrain. Tora and Daisuke are owned by R0guePanda.

* * *

 **Chapter 4:** Senzai Squad: Part 3

* * *

Mikado City was home to Border, an organization that specialized in fighting against the strange beings known as Neighbors. They had advanced technology that that was able to defeat the otherwise undefeatable creatures.

They had a way of attracting the Gates that opened up to allow Neighbors to come through to their world. But not all of them were sent to Mikado City. Sometimes the mysterious disappearances of people were caused by Neighbors as well. Ones that managed to not appear in Japanese city.

There were rumors that Border had decided to spread out across the world from Sweden, to Germany, to America. Those rumors were proven true by some agents who had come from said countries.

Knowing all of that, people might question while yet another Border building had been made in a city that was relatively close to the one that started it all.

Senzai Senshi was one of these people.

He wasn't going to complain or reason that it was unnecessary, but he did wonder the purpose for it being so close.

 _If it's just a train ride over then why make it? What's more..._

He looked at the people in the train with him.

One was Yuki, another was Jin. There was also a man as tall as Director Shinoda, as well as a man with glasses he recognized as Tamakoma's branch director. The last person there was...

"What's wrong, Sen-bō~? It's like you don't want me here~"

The last man was a handsome, young looking man with brown hair while yellow was on the front and sides of his hair. He had a smug expression and his whole appearance was a flashy one.

"It's not that... Motoharu-san, why are you here?"

"My team is on the list of ones that may move to this new Border base. What's more, we're going to be in charge of helping to announce it's actual opening, so I need to get familiar with the place."

Motoharu Kanchō was the captain Nanamagari and the one who had decided to run away for fear of getting shot by non-lethal arrows. Said arrows would of course have come from Senzai Squad's very own Sniper.

"Even so... Should you he off building your golden theater for the flamboyant? I'm sure you can set up all sorts of things there with the others."

Senshi spoke with no sort of malice or ill intent, even when he found it hard to deal with this man. His words were normal and mundane, as if to just fill up the space. As someone who preferred to see people happy over sad, he found that he could not bring himself to dislike most people. Even this man and all his teasing.

The others on the train could see that as well. They also knew that Motoharu also meant no harm in his teasing and so let it continue. If they really needed to break it up then they would otherwise they would just watch from the side.

.

While he watched the two, Yuki spoke up to address what was on his mind. Something that was probably on Senshi and Motoharu's minds as well.

"So, I can guess exactly why Rindo-san and Jin-san are here, but why are you tagging along, Sensei? I was surprised to see you waiting for us."

The man who was as tall as Director Shinoda let out a small sigh. He wore a track suit with the sleeves rolled up and had a very grown up feeling to him. They all knew him either Akasora or Sensei. The latter only being for Yuki.

"Apparently the directors want me to join Border again."

Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything else, Branch Director Rindo decided to speak up for his friend. His grin never left, even as Akasora clicked his tongue.

"They want him to be a in charge of the place. To make him even with Shinoda."

"That's not it, so stop lying. Well, I am getting the same spot as Masafumi, but only because of how long I've been in Border before and my skills. Someone else is going to be in charge of the whole place as the commander."

"I'm going along to see that everything goes smoothly~ Don't want any mishaps, right? Also, since Ketsu-san is also going to be transfered there, I wanted to tell him all about the place."

"Jin, I feel like you just want to have a small getaway."

"Well, I'm not going to be staying as long as you. I'm going to head back to Mikado in a few hours. Probably mid-day."

It was currently five in the morning and this group was on their way to the next city over of Mikado City. They needed to inspect the new building that had been made there, as well as see the surrounding area to get familiar with it.

With most of them being on a list of teams to get transfered to this new base they figured they would see where everything is to inform their teams. It was mostly being applied to Senshi and Yuki, seeing as how they would be going for their teams than anything else.

"I'm surpsied that Mei let you go out so early in the morning."

"..."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned Yuki. Each of them looked at him with varying degrees of pity.

They knew what would happened once they returned to Mikado City.

"I... I will message her later..."

They all started praying for his safety.

* * *

"Three shots... Wind resistance is accounted for... Possibility of shot falling before reaching the target is low... Alright. I'm ready!"

"Clap!"

The arrow soared through the air at an incredible amount of speed. The target was laid bare against the tree with two hole already made in the center of it. The third strike came from the arrow, making it stick to the tree by embedding it into the wood.

The morning air was nice and cold, the way she liked it. The oddly colored green and white bird on her shoulder also basked in the cool air. Some morning mist filled the air, making the two seem much more mystifying and fairy-like.

Shingai Ite let out a small sigh as she walked over to the tree with an arrow in it. She checked the tip of the arrow to see if there were any scratched, she found none. Putting it silently back in the large, brown bag at her waist, she started taking the target down from the tree as well.

Calm and mystifying morning like these were what she lived about waking up early. It gave her time to enjoy the scenery before having to go to school. A simple walk home then to school. That was what she liked.

This morning was a bit different though.

"Hey there, kid. It's pretty chilly out here, are you cold? If you jump in then I can warm you up."

Hearing the voice through the cold air, she turned around to see a middle aged man in a van looking at someone. The window was rolled down so that he could be heard.

The someone that was being spoken to was child, no older than ten or eleven. He had white hair and red eyes, yet seemed different than the chibi he had met before with her team. The look on his face showed that he was a bit confused.

Already knowing what could happen, Shingai raised her bow up while pulling out a new arrow. The end of the arrow had a more blunt look to it than the sharp end of the one that had hit the tree. With the calmness of a true archer, she took aim at the car.

"One shot... Wind resistance is accounted for... Possibility of shot falling before reaching the target is low... Possibility of hitting the child is also low. Possibility of hitting the man and knocking him out... I wish it could be higher. Alright. I'm ready!"

"Clap!"

With the bird on her shoulder repeating what it had previously said, she took the shot without blinking.

The blunt arrow soared through the air and passed the man in the van. The window behind him shattered as the arrow finally slowed down and hit the ground.

Both the man and child seemed surprised by this and turned to see where the arrow had come from.

"Yes, yes. Continue to look like a deer in the headlights. It gives me enough time to take pictures for the police. I will remember exactly what you look like and what you are driving."

Shingai spoke as she walked forward, phone in hand.

Seeing she taming the pictures, the man started up the van to make a quick getaway.

"Clap!"

Two more arrows were fired. This time they were fired at the tires of the van. Air quickly left the tires while the man frantically got out of the driver's seat.

Shingai continued to look calm while bringing up her bow once more.

"You may run. Just know that I still have three arrows left in my bag. I can also take those two arrows out from your tires. I am sure you do not want to end up with your feet stuck to the ground."

The man, seeing that there was no escape, sat there with sweat running down his face. His body shook violently as the archer walked towards the child.

She bent down to his level and gave a kind smile.

"Are you okay? My apologies for spooking you like that. Just know that I will make sure that disgusting people like that will not lay a finger on you. If you wish, I shall escort you home. Once the police arrive that is."

"Uh... No. I think I'll be fine. Thanks for the offer... And for helping me...?"

The boy seemed confused about everything that had just happened in front of him.

Shingai figured that he was a bit shaken from the whole experience, so she lightly pated his head. Her smile never fell, even after she saw something sticking out from his jacket.

She raised an eyebrow while speaking once more.

"Is that a Trigger? Are you in Border?"

"Hm? Oh. Yes. I'm...new."

"May I ask your name? I am Shingai Ite. Sniper for Senzai Squad."

"Rokuda Tora."

* * *

Sthénos knew that she would get in trouble by her teammates once they found out that she was out by herself again. Shingai would probably scold her while the two males would let it happen.

They were really nice to her and she had no issue with them, but she was always a bit annoyed by how protective they could be. She understood exactly why they were like that, yet it still felt as if they did not fully trust her.

"To be fair... It's probably because of stuff like this."

She spoke as she stared up at a Bambaster. It's towering appearance dwarfed her own petite figure as if she was an insect.

She walked forward as if this was nothing new. Making sure that anyone nearby was out of the way was what she needed to do. Once that was done then she could go about taking the Neighbor out.

It took only a few second for her to scan over the area and figure out that it was only the Bambaster and her.

"How did you even get passed everyone? I barely came to this area and no Gates opened up near me this time! Maybe it was one of the lower teams like Chano Squad who you were fighting! Well, regardless, I'm pretty hungry right now! So I'm going to he ending this rather quickly! Okay?"

Without warning, she took off the jacket and pants she had been wearing. After nearly folding them and putting them to the side she looked down at herself to see that she was indeed still wearing a skin-tight top and tights going halfway down to her knee.

Feeling around her waist, she nodded a few times before holding out her arms. Two devil-like wings sprouted out from the back of her waist. They slowly folded in until they were held out around her body a bit.

This was who she really was. She the little-devil Trion Soldier of unknown origin. There were no memories of where or how she was created, or even of how she had come to Earth, yet this was something she knew. She knew her name and what she really was. She was a Trion Soldier who was made to reject other Trion Soldiers.

The Bambster charged forward while letting out a roar.

Sthénos smiled a bit.

"TTTR. (Turn to the right)"

The Bambster's long neck quickly turned to the right, followed by the body. It crashed into one of the buildings on the side, slowing it down.

Once it got out of the building it started for her again.

"FBBYLYF. (Fall back because you lost your footing)"

The Bambster took a step forward before seeming to slip on nothing and falling down with a crash.

This was who she was. A Trion Soldier that could reject and control other Trion Soldiers. Reprogramming them took a bit longer, but that have her complete control over them. Using this form of shortened speech was how she was able to gain an advantage on short battles against other Trion Soldiers.

There was something wrong with this. Her teammates always tell her not to use her abilities as a Trion Soldier. It was not that they disliked her abilities, rather they wanted to make sure that she was not found out on accident. They enjoyed her company, so they didn't want something bad to happen to her.

That was why she had decided to use her abilities right now. In a moment where they were not around. She tried to follow their requests, but there were times like these when she needed to do this. It was for her own selfish want.

 _They said that it's fine to be a bit selfish at times..._

She walked forward while forcing the Bambster to stay down. Once she was at the mouth of it, she stuck her hand right in and took hold of the core. With one surprisingly strong pull, the core came right out.

The Bambster stopped moving as the core glowed her in hand.

"Thanks for the meal!"

She opened her mouth wide while dropping the core into her mouth. Without chewing it or letting it sit there for a moment, it slid down her throat as an audible gulping sound was made.

"It wasn't too bad. It didn't even manage to capture one person, so that's fine. For now, I should get out of here~"

She could feel other Trion signatures heading in her direction. That meant she really needed to run away before she was caught.

She walked over to her clothes and gently picked them up. They stayed in her arms as she walked away.

"Can't forget these. They all picked them out just for me!"

The extra parts of her body that no ordinary human had started to retract as she put her clothes back on.

Clothes were an annoying thing to deal with, but those extra features had to be hidden for her not to be discovered by others. That was why her sniping teammate had always been angered when she took them off. Also because it truly was public indecency.

While she hated the fabric that covered her up, she continue to wear it for the sake of her freedom and her teammates. She would not be the only one effected if others found out about her.

"Hm? What's a kid doing here? Hey, are you lost?"

Hearing a voice very close to her, Sthénos quickly turned around to see a glasses-wearing boy standing there. His head was tilted to the side, so she became a bit cautious about him. Questioning if he saw her a few moments ago may lead to a difficult situation. Moving away from that thought was best right now.

She gave him a large smile while bouncing up to him, making him take a step back.

"Hi! I'm not lost! I was on my way to the Border base! I need to meet up with one of my teammates there so we can wait for our captain to come back to Mikado City!"

"Is that so? Why don't I go with you then? I actually need to go there as well."

"Sure! I can introduce you to Ite! She's a crazy good archer! Her aim with a bow and arrow are unmatched! She can shoot down anything from a mile away! That's why I'm getting her a very special bow!"

"Really? Well, that's very nice of you. And I'm actually a Sniper, so maybe we could have a bit of a contest to see who has better aim."

"She's a Sniper too! But she isn't as good with a Trigger than a bow and arrow! You would have to let her use those if you want a real contest!"

Sthénos happily spoke as she skipped next to the boy, finding him to be rather easy to speak with. Actually, she found everyone to be easy to speak with. It was hard for her to find someone who she couldn't speak openly with.

"Oh yeah! My name is Sthénos! I forgot to tell you!"

"Sthénos... Sthénos... Ah! That's where I've heard that from! You said your teammate's name is Ite, right?"

"Yup! Shingai Ite! Sixteen years old, blond hair, bust size is-"

"I don't think she would want me to know that about her!" The boy let out a small sigh before speaking again. "Anyways... I'm Shinya. Shinya Daisuke. I've heard about her from my classmates. They all call her Titania. I haven't met her, but everyone says that she really does look like a fairy. I wonder if that's true..."

"Hm? What about fairies!?"

"Oh. You don't know? Titania is the name of a character in an old story. It's the name of the fairy queen. I'm sure you can guess where this is going."

"Yup, yup! And thanks for telling me! Now I can call her that!"

"... Please don't tell her I told you this..."

* * *

Senshi looked around in fascination. The wide open area was interesting since he was use to people walking around to just being around. Lively and loud, that's what he has come to know. Seeing the open space with almost no one there made it seem weird.

As he was looking around he felt something pat his back.

"Hey, don't got spacin' out on us, Sen-bō. You're coming with me to take a look around."

Senshi looked towards the others that were there.

Yuki shrugged and Jin grinned. The two adults had apparently left when he wasn't looking since it was just the four of them.

"Are you two coming as well?"

"Sorry, I'm going to go take a look by myself. After that I'll see if I can find Akasora-sensei. and Rindo-san."

"I'm good~ I need to take a look and see if everything is alright."

"Please don't leave me with him..."

"Aw~ What's wrong, Sen-bō~? It's almost like ya don't wanna go with me. Could it be that yer too embarrassed after what happened last time?"

"I believe that you were the one who forced me in that ridiculous outfit..."

"I thought it looked really good on ya~ The girls around us thought ya looked fine~ Isn't that what matters~?"

"Ah... That was what Suzu-chan was talming about that day... I'm sorry, SenSen..."

"It's fine. I know she can be hard to control."

"Aw~ Why's ya accept his apology but not mine~?"

"Because you aren't sorry at all for it."

Seeing that the two of them were going to start up again, Jin and Yuki both took this chance to make their escape.

.

The two continued their back-and-forth while starting to walk around.

The areas were similar to the Border base they knew, yet seemed completely different with no other people walking around. It gave a sort of ominous feeling that wasn't usually found in Border.

Senshi nodded his head a few times as he looked around to see that the place truly was well made. Everything around them look very new and cutting edge, nothing around them looking as though it had issues.

"Are ya sure yer squad can make it here~? Ya guys are pretty old fashioned, ya know~? With the way Ite-bō speaks and how the two of ya act ya may end up with people questionin' ya on the daily~"

"I have no clue as to what you are talming about. We aren't old fashioned. Just the other day, Ite had told Sthénos all the newest information on the goddess Artemis."

"Why not somethin' more realistic~? Gods and goddesses mean nothin' to any of us~ They are always just stories that others create in order to explain things they don't wanna deal with~ And if they do exist, what's with Neighbors~? They're from a different world, so do those same gods and goddesses help to create and regulate those worlds too~?"

"Why are you asking so many things like that? And why are you getting so fired up? They were just stories to entertain Sthénos before we had to go out. Besides, she likes talking about anything relating to archers. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, so that's to be expected."

"I guess young girls like 'em enjoy stories like that~ Just remember to pull 'em back to reality once in a while~ If they stay in those stories fer too long then they'll end up being unready for reality~ And I'm sure no one wants a girl like that~"

"You know an arrow is going right to your crotch if she ever hears you say something like that."

"Yeah, well-~"

The two stopped for a moment as they heard a ringing noise going off. The ringing was coming from Senshi's pocket, signaling that he had just received a message.

Opening up his phone, and having Motoharu lean towards him, he looked at the message for a moment before the screen turned pitch black on them.

The two of them stood there, looking at the blank screen as if something completely unexpected had been shown.

Senshi was quick to put his phone away and turn to the older man next to him. His voice was raised while the man started laughing without any reserve. What they had seen was rather unbelievable.

"What did you tell her that word meant!? And why did she put that! I hope you didn't tell her anything stupid or I'll really do something about this!"

"I don't know what her talkin' about~! But that crap is funny as hell~!"

"There is no way she actually knows what that means! You told her something! I have no doubts about that!"

The two of them clearly remembered what they had seen for that brief moment. Something along the lines of...

 **Hey, guess what!? I gave birth and Ite is having sex in the training room!**


	5. Ite Shingai

**Chapter 5:** Ite Shingai

* * *

"Daisuke-nii, what is 'sex'?"

That was the question that put the two Snipers in the room on alert.

Shingai was quick to run over and grab Sthénos. The phone in her hand was quickly confiscated so that the archer could see what was on it.

The other male there, a boy by the name Shinya Daisuke, walked over with a worried look.

"Where did you hear that word...?"

"She was typing it out just now. She was saying that she had given birth and that you two were having 'sex' in the training room."

"'Sex' is doing something intimate with others! That's what they were doing! Ite and Daisuke were having 'sex' since they were having a contest! Hey, hey, can you two have 'sex' by having a foot race next! I already know that Ite will win, but I just want to see you two having 'sex' again!"

"Sthénos! Please stop using that word! You have it all wrong! Was it that evil man who told you what that word meant!?"

Shingai sounded panicked as she held her phone to her ear. Her feet continued to tap on the ground while she waited impatiently for her captain to answer.

"Yeah! Kan told me all about 'sex'! Oh yeah! Hey, Tora, do you want to have-"

"Do not continue that sentence! And please forget whatever stupid thing that man has said about that word! It is very incorrect!"

The two boys there watched the two girls continue their back-and-forth. This was not something that was expected at all.

Daisuke wondered who in the right mind would tell a little girl about something like sex. A few people came to mind, but none of them seemed like the type to go through with it.

"He is not picking up! Do not tell me that he forgot to charge his phone! You would think that even at long distance my Side Effect would cancel his out!"

This was a side of he had not seen before. They may have been Border agents, but he had hardly spoken to her until today. A greeting here and there was all, otherwise they stuck with their own friends. Seeing her like this was a rather nice treat.

Even so, he did feel bad for her.

"Hey, Shingai, do you just want to do this contest some other time? That way you can be more focused on it."

"Yes. I am sorry. I was very much looking forward to it. For now I must try and get in contact with our captain."

Daisuke gave a nod before ushering Tora out of the room. The two turned back for a quick moment.

"I'll see ya at school, Shingai. And it was nice meeting you, Sthénos."

"Bye, girls."

"Bye, Tora! Next time we should have s-!"

"I am sorry about her... Farewell, you two. Have a nice day."

Shingai watched the two leave before letting out a small sigh. Their captain did not answer and she just had to put a contest on hold. When she thought about it some more it seemed as if she was getting rather unlucky right now. That just meant something really good was going to come later on.

Her Side Effect was good luck, the opposite of her captain's. The amount of luck was always different, depending on the circumstances. There had been times when she had won lotteries from a ticket on the floor while other times she simply guessed right on a multiple choice test. The Side Effect she had was rather fickle when one saw how she lived.

Having something unlucky happen to her meant that a large amount of luck would be going her way at some point. It was an odd way of balancing itself out.

"Hey, Ite! I have a present for you!"

"What is it...? Please do not tell me it involves something that evil man has told you..."

"Nope! It's what I gave birth too!"

Shingai was about to ask what she was talking about before remembering the other part of her message. Apparently she had given birth to something. That made her question if Sthénos even knew the meaning of the word "birth" or not.

She was going to ask if the other girl knew what that word meant. Any words that were going to come out were stopped the moment Sthénos reached into her pocket and pulled out a Trigger.

"What is that...?"

It was certainly a Trigger. The reason for the question was because of the oddness of it. Instead of it being black like every other Trigger Border had, this one was a white one with a length that was slightly shorter than normal.

Sthénos held out the Trigger happily, as if it was her pride and joy.

"You guys didn't let me eat any more of the cores, so it took longer than I wanted! But I made this for you!"

"You...made this?"

"Uh-huh! It's a specially made Trigger for you! Try it! C'mon! I wann see you try it out! Please!"

"Sthénos..." Shingai walked up and lightly patted her teammate's head. "Thank you for this, but I need to inform the directors about this. Senzai as well."

"Whaaaaaat~!? Why!? Senshi is obvious, but why the directors! Won't they take it away from you!? It's not like anyone else can use it! I made it especially for you, so you are the only person who can use it!"

"Hm? Is that true?"

Sthénos violently nodded her head.

"Well... How about I ask for a change in Triggers? I can simply tell them that Shūsei-san wishes for me to test out a new Trigger. From there I could switch to using this Trigger."

"Really!? Yay! Hey! Can you at least try it out! I really wanna see you in the outfit!"

"There better be clothing... If I end up in the nude then there will be consequences."

"Right!"

Seeing Sthénos so excited, the Sniper-girl let out a small sigh. She lifted the Trigger up while willing it to activate. Her body started getting swapped out for a Trion-made one.

Once she was fully in her new Trion Body, she looked over at the full-body mirrors a bit away. She saw the differences in the clothing, as well as weaponry. She now wore an dress that went down to her knees, light shoes and the color scheme was a light, feathery one.

What she really took notice of was the nice bow in her hand. It was a large one, as tall as her, with a beautiful black and gold coloring. The main color was gold, black lining surrounded it, creating very artistic swirls and lines.

"It's name is Tauropolos!"

"That is-"

"Yup! I know you like Artemis because of bow and arrows, so I named it after one of her names! Think of it like using her bow! You can fire arrows of Trion! I know that you have better aim when using a bow!"

Shingai stared down at the beautifully crafted bow, then turned back to her teammate. A smile shone on Sthénos' face as she waited for some kind of response from the archer.

What she got was a small sigh.

"Very well." She gave a small smile. "Thank you very much for this gift, Sthénos. I will make sure to get permission to use it. I cannot simply let such a wonderful gift go to waste, can I?"

Sthénos nodded her head while her smile grew even more.

* * *

It felt like a dream, yet it felt real.

She could feel each stone, yet her hand went through each thing.

Those monsters always scared her, yet they seemed to never mind her.

A boy.

She could see a boy holding a sword. His expression could not be properly read, yet he was in a fighting stance.

Could he be important? Was there any meaning in holding that sword?

What was he fighting against?

He was pointing. The direction he was pointing to was where the city was.

Was it really a city?

It looked like both a city as well as a graveyard. The buildings on the platforms of land seemed to double as gravestones with the large tower in the center of it all masqueraded as a mausoleum. The tower in the center had a spiral encompassing it, glowing a brilliant green that illuminated the whole area. Green and brown covered the whole of the underground, making for a solemn, yet mystifying sight.

She felt sorrow for those they had put in those graves, yet she felt happy for those who were happily resting in those buildings.

She couldn't remember it to well but there may have been a time when she entered that tower. The brilliantly green tower that was both a haven as well as a death sentence.

It was not just her.

The boy was also someone from that tower - probably.

There had been a chance that they wandered away from the tower, or maybe they had simply been let out.

Those ideas felt wrong.

The best was she could think of that building, the best way she remembered what happened, was that they had "escaped".

What had they "escaped" from?

Was the word she wanted "escape"?

Maybe they were simply useless at this point, so there was no reason for them to stay.

But then why does she remember firing at anything that came from that tower?

A lizard, a skeletal dragon, a sea creature, a giant, an orange and red turtle, a large ice-like creature, a ghost-like creature. They had been targets for her to take aim and shoot at. People were also targets at times, especially children.

She was sure she felt pity for those who had tried to become like her and that boy. That was why she shot them.

Was it pity?

There was a chance that she just did not want to take the risk of going back.

But what was there to go back too?

* * *

 _A dream? Or is it a memory? If it is then I would rather forget it._

Shingai let out a small sights she slowly stood up from the couch she had been laying on.

Checking the clock on the wall she was able to tell that it had only been an hour or so since she had fallen asleep.

She went for her phone and saw that there were multiple unread messages. All of them were from the guy she hated the most.

 _What does he want?_

She thought about just ignoring the messages, but went against her thoughts and looked at the messages anyways.

"Oh... Right. His phone probably died..."

The name read "Motoharu Kanchō" on the phone, but the person actually sending those messages had been her captain. Each one had been asking her what was going on and that he would be going back to Mikado City earlier with than planned with Jin and Rindo to check up on them.

She answered back while walking towards the door.

"The fact he had to use that man's phone to message me gives me a terrible feeling..."

Putting her phone in her pocket with a sour face, she felt something already taking up the space. She swapped her phone with what the thing was and saw that it was a white Trigger.

Everything that had happened before falling asleep came back to her. She had to go inform some people about this new Trigger in a tactful way.

It seemed that her Side Effect was going off for her at the moment since one of those people ended up being a bit further down the hall.

Using her natural speed, she caught up easily.

She walked next to a man with shaggy brown hair and large, circular glasses. His general appearance was of a laid back guy with his lab coat, button-up shirt and loose tie. He was slouching a bit while waving at her with a tired look.

"Hey there, Ite-chan. How are ya?"

"Oh. I am doing quite well, thank you for asking. How about you? Have you been eating and sleeping well?"

"Same ol' stuff. Ramen and two hours of sleep. I need as much time as I can get to work on different things. It doesn't help when Moto comes along and asks for stupid things."

"Please do not mention that man in front of me. He is a terrible person who I cannot actually fire an arrow at. And have I not told you to eat more healthy foods and get more sleep?"

"Moto isn't that bad of a guy. He's annoyin', but he does everything in good fun. That's how he gets along with people like Tachikawa and Touma. They're all basically happy idiots. It's better to just leave 'em alone and let them enjoy themselves."

"I suppose..."

Letting out a small sigh, Shingai remembered the reason she went up to him in the first place.

"Shūsei-san, may I ask for your assistance? It concerns Sthénos-"

"Say no more. Let's just go over to the side."

The two moved over towards a more secluded part of area.

Shūsei Jinsoku was the only other person besides Senzai Squad and the directors to know about what Sthénos really was. He was trustworthy enough to be told, as well as skilled enough to do any maintenance on her when needed. He was a loner in the R&D department, meaning he had the freedom and space to do this maintenance without any issue.

Shūsei looked around before nodding his head.

"Alright. Whatcha need? Is somethin' wrong? Do I need to do another checkup?"

"No, that is not necessary. You see... She gave...birth today..."

Shūsei was quite for a moment.

Shingai tilted her head at his reaction. It was a fair one, but not the one she expected.

"What...exactly do ya mean?"

"It is not what it seems. By 'birth' I mean she created a Trigger by herself. She chose the word 'birth' and I was simply repeating it." She held out the white Trigger in her hand. "It was specially made for me and me alone. According to her."

He took hold of the Trigger to inspect it.

"Have ya tried it out yet?"

"Yes. It is a bow that can fire arrows of Trion. She has decided to call it Tauropolos."

"'Tauropolos Artemis', right?"

"Correct. It is because I told her about my affection for the goddess Artemis."

"Artemis is a goddess of chastity and the hunt. It's no wonder you enjoy that kind of mythology. But back to the main topic, this is interestin'. I never would've thought that she could create a Trigger herself. Do ya happen to know _how_ she created it? Did she do anythin' specific or show any signs of havin' it at all?"

"She did say something that can give us a clue."

"What was it?"

"I believe she said, 'You guys didn't let me eat any more of the cores'. That may explain it."

"Yeah. We've already learned that she can boost the amount of Trion she has by eating the cores of other Trion Soldiers. She probably used that extra Trion to create this Trigger for ya."

"I see..."

It was strange. This whole things was strange.

The question of where Sthénos had come from had always stumped them, but this was different. It added on to that question while creating even more.

Where was she made? Why was she made the way she was? Why did she have such strange abilities? Why did she hate clothes so much?

The last question everyone in general had wondered once they saw her start to strip.

Everyone who knew about her had yet to get any answers to these questions. Each time they tried to solve it they would end up at dead ends or with more questions. It was a never ending cycle that none of them could get out of no matter how hard they tried.

"Quite a predicament..."

Shūsei nodded his head while handing back the Trigger.

"Such a strange thing, that child-like Trion Soldier."

Shingai could only nod her head in agreement.

"Trouble!"

A strange bird came flying towards the two of them before circling above their heads.

"Piripiri? What is the matter?"

The strange bird stopped flying in circles and started flying down the hallway.

Shingai turned to Shūsei with a worried look.

"Just go. I'll catch up."

Nodding her head, Shingai started running down the hall at a quick pace.

The smiling of steps she took was small. But her speed was passed that of an average person. She easily caught up to Piripiri and was directed towards the large area leaving the hallway.

.

Shingai looked around the area but found nothing out of the ordinary.

She saw her bird fly towards the left and continued to follow it.

The looks she got from others was ignored in favor of keeping up with the bird. It wasn't too hard, but the people in the way became obstacles that she had to move around.

Thankfully the trouble wasn't too far away. Sadly, it involved her teammate and clothing.

"Keep it on! You can't just get naked in public!"

"But it's all itchy and restricting! I need to take it off!"

"Oh! Shingai! Can you help out here!?"

What she saw was not the kind of trouble she had expected.

She wasn't sure what exactly she had expected, but she most certainly did not think it would be Sthénos trying to take her clothes off while Tora yelled at her not to and Daisuke making sure that she kept them on. What made it worse was the fact that this scene, from a distance, could be seen as Daisuke doing something inappropriate to the girl.

She let out a tired sigh as she started walking over towards them. Her eyes were narrowed as she gently pushed the boys to the side. She looked down at Sthénos, who was just grinning up at her.

"Sthénos, if you do not keep your clothes on then I will make sure that you will no longer be allowed to participate in solo matches for a month."

"What!?"

"Also, make sure that you apologize for causing these two even more trouble."

Giving a small pout, Sthénos walked over to the two boys and gave a small bow.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble again."

Daisuke waved it off for the both of them, seeing as how his teammate was currently unsure on what to do with the situation. Which was understandable to everyone, seeing as how no one expects to be in those kinds of situations to begin with.

Shingai gave a gentle pat to her head.

"Very good. Now then..."

She turned to the older boy and put on a smile that gave a majestic feeling. Daisuke could see exactly why she had always been called a fairy.

"Shinya-kun, since we are here, if you are not too busy, why not have that contest now?"

"Huh? Oh, sure. I'm free right now. Do you two want to come along?"

The two smaller agents nodded their heads while standing in the middle of the two older ones.

With that, the four of them started making their way over to Senzai Squad's once more. They figured it was best to do it in their training room than the actual Sniper training grounds do to Shingai using a bow and arrow instead of a Trigger.

Shingai had told them that Shūsei had been with her at the time Piripiri had gotten her. So the bird above them had been sent off to tell the R&D worker that everything was now fine and that he did not have to go see them.

So the four of them started talking to use up the time it would take from their current location to the room.

Shingai and Daisuke had started up a conversation about other snipers and different ways to utilize different Triggers.

Meanwhile, Sthénos tried to converse with the small boy next to her, yet found that he continued to try and back away from her.

Thinking she would get in trouble again with Shingai, she decided to change her target by looking up at her teammate.

"Hey, hey, Ite, I have a question. What's a 'changeling'?"

 _"Begin the changeling."_

For a single moment, she heard something.

Was it from her dream? Was it from her memory?

That voice was familiar, yet also very foreign to her.

Shaking her head a bit, she looked down at Sthénos.

"Changeling is a form of teasing done by fairies. They replace a child with one of their own, letting that fairy-child live among humans. It is hardly spoken of here in Japan, yet in places like England it is quite known. There is a good reason for that as well. Would you two like to hear it?"

She saw the eyes of both Sthénos and Tora light up a bit at this unknown information.

She used that as a chance to continue speaking.

"They say that London, England is the Fairy Queen's city, and that fairies who wish to dwell among humans may not live there. Even so, there are some who come down to join us and rejoice in their new life here."

Sthénos had her mouth wide open as she took all the information in. To others it was just some story and, unironically, a fairy tale, but to these two young ones, ones who clearly knew little of other things, it was a magnificent wonder.

Daisuke seemed to enjoy their reactions to it as well, if his laughing was anything to go by.

The knowledge that had just been told was not the only magnificent things either. As she told it, Shingai herself seemed to glow a bit. Whether it was from pride or enjoyment from telling such a thing was an unknown.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh. Some people were talking about you and said that you might be the result of a changeling. They said that you are like a fairy!"

"I would not go that far. Fairies are majestic creatures that rarely appear in front of others. If I did happen to be one then I am sure I would not have enough courage to appear in front of others."

"But didn't you just say that fairies leave their city when they want to be with people? So how can they be so rare?"

It was not Sthénos who had asked this but rather it was Tora, who now seemed really interested as well.

"Those fairies come down not only to dwell with people, but also because it means they have found someone they love. Someone who is enough of a reason to come out of that city."

"So have you found that person yet~? I guess you have since you are here right now."

"Hm. I am not a fairy, so I was already in Japan. Besides... I would leave to save children, not for romance. To me, children are treasures much more precious than anything else."

She smiled down at the two young ones walking next to her.

Sthénos gave a wide smile while Tora seemed to be thinking of something.

Shingai felt very calm and peaceful. Just being here, with people like these, was enough for her to be happy. To see these two children happily walking without really having to worry about anything.

This was a nice feeling.

To just have days like these, days of relaxation and calm.

But days like those were never made to last forever.


	6. Senshi Senzai

**Disclaimer:** Minoru is owned by Yujonokage

* * *

 **Chapter 6:** Senshi Senzai

* * *

 _This is bad..._

Senshi looked around his classroom with what can only be described as a fake sense of nervousness.

Everything around him seemed normal enough. His classmates were either paying attention to their teacher or ignoring him for one reason or another. Nothing bad was going on and even he was simply sitting at his desk with nothing particular going on.

That was the problem.

He had a Side Effect that produced an abnormally high amount of bad luck that would be directed at him and things around him. Due to this, there had been multiple times when he had gotten to school late, covered in multiple substances or just generally had a terrible start with others around him.

Today was different.

Nothing bad had happened to him on his way to school and nothing bad had happened to him at school. It was as if his Side Effect was completely shut off for the day.

 _That is usually where I need to worry. Yet..._

If there was one thing that Senshi had found out about his Side Effect then it would be this; the more bad luck that was not directed at him, the more likely something terrible will happen later on. As if all his bad luck gathered into a single point in time that would blanket over everything around him.

The last time he could hardly remember. Yet the memory was still there.

Even with something like this hanging over him, even though he knew something terrible would happen, he felt no sense of danger or worry. Not even the feeling of pity for the others that would be effected came up.

And the reason for that was rather simple.

He never felt those kinds of feelings.

Senzai Senshi had never once felt fear, worry or sympathy. He could not understand other people and he could not tell when his own life was in danger.

That may have been the reason as to why he felt no worries when he had heard Shingai's bird start speaking like a human or that Sthénos had "given birth" to a Trigger that Shingai had gotten permission to use.

 _Right. Even when I was with Motoharu, all I did was try and simulate what a normal person's worries would be like. I thought nothing of the message and simply wanted to come back to see what it was about._

When he had made his way back to Mikado City he noticed something off. That something being that there had been no issues with going back. The train ride was smooth and the platform was not as crowded as it should have been. He had gotten lucky.

Which was exactly why he knew something was off.

On his way to the Border base he had ended up meeting a girl who seemed to be talking over the phone with someone. The conversation was hard to really keep up with from only hearing one side of it but it seemed that someone she knew was having a target practice with someone.

They had spoken to each other and he had learned that she was the captain of a Border squad.

The two had made it to the base before splitting off to go their own ways.

Once he got to his squad's operating room he had met up with the rest of his team. Shingai and Sthénos had already been there and it seemed that Tekitai only just got there.

Before he could ask about anything, something else happened. Someone had spoken up.

It was someone that no one expected.

* * *

 _"So you're finally here, Senshi. That's good. Take a seat so we can all have a chat. Yes, yes, I realize how odd this seems. Just hurry up so I can get to explaining. I mean, even the Tamakoma people got here before you. Granted, Jin was with you, so I will let that guy get a pass."_

 _Senshi tilted his head a bit when he saw a strange green and white bird ordering him around while picking between its feathers._

 _The strange bird was one that he already knew, seeing as how it belonged to his teammate._

 _Taking a look around he noticed that the two boys they had met not too long ago were also there with a new girl being spoken to by Shingai and Sthénos. Tekitai seemed to be messing with the two boys._

 _Without another word he entered the room while silently closing the door behind him._

 _"Right! Now then! Replica, you can join us as well. I know that you are there, seeing as how you are taking care of Yuma."_

 _Hearing what was said, the Autonomous Trion Soldier came out from Kuga's ring and began to float in the air in front of Kuga._

 _The strange bird started up before anyone had a chance to speak._

 _"I am also an Autonomous Trion Soldier. You may all still call me Piripiri, if you wish. Any questions should be asked once I am done explaining what I need to. Do you all understand?"_

 _Taking their silence as an answer Piripiri continued to speak._

 _"Do to...something happening, Ite here has a new Trigger that is Neighbor-made. She has informed the directors that this Trigger is a specially made one from someone in the R &D department here in Border. Because she will be using this Trigger I thought it would be good for me to tell her that she can make a contract with the Neighbor nation I am affiliated with."_

 _The words from the strange bird seemed to bring confusion to everyone in the room._

 _"Fundamentally different from your regular Triggers here, which use your own Trion to create such amazing things, anyone with a contract will be able to make loans of information as trades in order to achieve even greater things. You will receive assistance by simply giving up something as a trade. You can store up any favors earned through this contract for later use or simply provide what is needed for the initial trade. You simply need me to clarify what you are doing for those to be withdrawn and used."_

 _"Wait! What kind of trades exactly?"_

 _"Although I said that questions must wait unti the end, I shall let this one slide." Piripiri ruffled its feathers a few times. "It is a simple trade. Information for assistance. Information about yourself or about your world. I suppose some of your own Trion would also work, but I do not recommend it."_

 _"-!"_

 _"Do not worry. The information is usually trivial. Such as entertainment, food and general ecosystem of this world. That is all."_

 _"..."_

 _"Anyway, I shall get back to my explaination. Several hours are needed to accumulate a single unit of stored favors. If you then offered an even greater amount of information to a shared storage, transactions using that are possible since others could also make use of it. Because of this, using high caliber assistance means spending several hours of hard work and information in the accumulation of assistance and losing a chance of using it in transactions."_

 _The moment Piripiri stopped speaking everyone there tilted their heads to the side._

 _Having just explained what was needed, Piripiri let out a small sigh. Knowing that they would not understand was an obvious fact that he just did not want to believe._

 _Even so, he went along with them._

 _"Questions. Just ask questions. Oh. Yes. Osamu. You may ask now."_

 _"Right... What you were basically saying was that Shingai-senpai can get help from a whole Neighbor world if she gives them something in return?"_

 _"Correct. Although, I should point out that it is not like she can get the whole nation to come over here during an attack or anything. Just simple things like amplifying her attack or making it so that it will never miss."_

 _"Why did you explain all of that to us instead of just Shingai?"_

 _"Because that leads into my next subject."_

 _Fluttering its wings again, Piripiri looked towards the three who had come from the Tamakoma Branch._

 _It gave a hard look at Replica before looking at Kuga's ring. Then it settled for looking at Mikumo._

 _"From my aerial observations of the city, that girl has a high amount of Trion. She will be hunted should something happen. That is why I wish for Tamakoma to also make a contract. That way assistance will be at the ready."_

 _"Why did you bring us here then? Wouldn't have asking Rindo-san been better since he is in charge? Or even Kizaki-san and our senpai."_

 _"Yes, it would have." Piripiri picked at its wings again. "But I simply like you more than them. Osamu, you are weak, which is also why I want you guys to make a contract. You have very little Trion, so this can help you out."_

 _The glasses-boy seemed to consider it for a moment._

 _It could definitely help them out as a whole and not just him. If there were times when he would need that help then it would be beneficial to get that assistance._

 _So..._

* * *

 _I suppose leaving them with those thoughts was the best we could do at the time._

Senshi let out a small breath through his nose as he thought about the day prior.

Not only had he learned that Piripiri was also a Trion Soldier, apparently he was from the same nation Sthénos had come from. Although what nation that was was still up in the air for everyone. The bird-shaped Trion Soldier had not told any of them that information.

Shingai seemed fine with the contract seeing as how she would be better able to protect children around her from Neighbors. Sthénos and Tekitai seemed to not mind it either. The four from Tamakoma were the only ones uncertain since they had a question to answer now.

 _Was it a bit much for them to keep quiet about this to others though? What's more, we are now keeping Piripiri a secret from the directors. If they hear about this..._

It was a thought he would rather not have.

Even so, he felt no worry. His pulse and thoughts were calm, as if there truly was nothing wrong going on and there were no secrets to be had.

He truly had no sense of self preservation.

To call him a human would still be accurate. To call him a normal human would be incorrect.

A normal person would worry about their own wellbeing - he did not. A normal person would be cautious when faced with something unknown - he was not. A normal person would assume that everything was great if their luck got better - he knew better.

Maybe it was because he was an odd person that he knew something terrible would happen.

A memory.

The very few times he had gotten these kinds of feelings he had a memory appear.

It was a bit hazy and never fully remembered it once the memory was finished. It was odd, yet he knew that there was nothing he could actually do about it.

He always remembered a girl with delicate features. The girl was alone when he had seen her under the layers of dirt and ground where they had called home. The few others there always though that there was no way they could even speak with her. Yet she knew so well their weathered hands, when they were gentle, when they brought color to her cheeks.

After some time they still put that color to her face, but it was not the same, because they turned their backs on her. When she was hiding at his feet, he knew he would stay. He knew it should hurt to see her like that and he was fighting for those feelings but he was losing ground.

She was unintended, not unloved. That was why he was the one to keep her safe.

They all looked down on her, making her look down herself. There had been hope that the place would become a home, yet that never seemed to happen.

Her shoes were scuffed, she dragged her feet too much. She could not lift her face and continually tried to justify her place.

He might have told her to stay how she was. He may have not.

The next thing he remembered, they had made it outside of the dirt and ground they had lived under.

 _If only I could show your future you would light up like the sun..._

Those were his thoughts as they went back under.

At some point after that it had happened.

They had done what they wanted.

She was now fighting for his future and she was gaining ground.

He was protected. He was loved.

She was no longer looking down since there was no one looking down on her. There was no reason to justify herself, no reason to worry about what would happen.

Yes.

Now they had only one task. That task had been to keep looking over the city.

Yes. It was a city.

To be accurate; it looked like both a city as well as a graveyard. The buildings on the platforms of land seemed to double as gravestones with a large tower in the center of it all that masqueraded as a mausoleum. The tower in the center had a spiral encompassing it, glowing a brilliant green that illuminated the whole area. Green and brown covered the whole underground, making for a solemn yet mystifying sight.

He had seen her feel sorrow for those they had put in those graves, yet he also saw her happy for those who were happily resting in those buildings.

She was a little light, yet also a big achiever.

She had given her little light.

That little light had a brand new start.

She had a brand new start.

"Hey, are you going to go with us or stay in your seat?"

Hearing a voice just above him was all that was needed to pull him from his thoughts.

He looked up to see two people standing there looking down at him. They seems to be waiting for an answer to something they may have asked.

It took a few seconds for him to register what exactly was asked of him.

"Oh."

Senshi stood up with a sound of his knee hitting his desk.

The whole room reacted instantly. The two standing next to him looked ready to block anything around them or catch him as if he was going to fall. The others in the room seemed ready to run or duck underneath one of the desks.

It was fair, in his opinion.

"My bad. I just bumped my knee. That's all."

Those words seemed to ease some worries but there were still some who looked around nervously.

 _Yes. That is the normal reaction of those who are around me. My bad luck is something that everyone hates. It's fine. Yes. I am fine with being hated for this reason. It's a fine enough reason._

Senshi nodded to himself.

Most people viewed him as a sort of bad luck charm and so tended to keep their distance from him. Unlike Shingai's self-focus good luck, Senshi's bad luck was indiscriminate and effected everyone and everything around him. Those with relatively good luck were even victims to it.

 _Shingai is the only one not really effected by it. Her good luck is messed up by my bad luck. But that's only for her. Others are still wary of being around me. Yes. It's fine to be hated for this. It just means I have enough Trion to fight well enough._

He already knew that there was no way to completely reassure others that it was fine to be around him. After such a long time of others staying away from him it was a given that he would understand what it felt like to be alone.

"What a bunch of asses. They can't at least pretend like they aren't afraid of you?"

"Not sure if that's any better. Wouldn't that actually be worse in the end? You're basically saying that you want them to be fake around Magnet."

"It's fine, Minoru, Arafune. I understand how they feel towards me. It's only the natural reaction when it comes to me. Actually... Are you two sure you want to be around me? I would understand if you want to have lunch without me."

Arafune Tetsuji and Hatohara Minoru exchanged looks as their friend stood up from his seat to follow them.

That was not something either one of them would accept at all. Unlike those who were currently keeping away from the trio, the two of them continued to wait for Senshi to get ready to leave the classroom.

"Stop saying stupid things. If anything... We should be sticking by you to make sure you are okay when your bad luck hits."

"...Thank you then."

 _I wish I could sympathize with that sentiment. I can't even get myself to be happy about him saying that. Yes. There really is something wrong with me, isn't there? Yes. I just have to continue living with it._

Senshi nodded to himself again as if to confirm his own thoughts as correct.

"So-"

 **[Warning.]**

"Of course..."

 **[A gate is opening.]**

Senshi said nothing, made no sound, as he turned around to see crackling in the sky. A large black ball with crackling lighting started to form within the space in the air. It grew until it became the size that exceeded their school's front gate.

He could hear the sounds behind him as students and teachers tried to gather themselves so that they would not be attacked. There were multiple voices and alarms going on behind him, but he was still able to hear his two friends speaking right behind him.

"Why did one open over here!?"

"It's probably because of that bad luck charm there!"

"Hey! Get your ass moving instead of putting the blame on others."

Arafune took a step forward while Minoru helped the students get clear if the area.

"Senzai, this isn't your-"

"This one is different."

Arafune was confused at what was being said to him.

It was only after he looked towards the Gate did he figure out what Senshi meant.

What came from the Gate in front of them was not the average Marmod, Bambster or Bander. No, this was something completely different from anything either one of them had seen up to this point as Border agents.

"-!"

The Neighbor let out a large roar that shook the ground.

"What is that...?"

The size of the Neighbor was as large, if not larger, than a Bambster with the coloring being mostly gray with red lines running all along the body. Multiple parts of it, including its claws seemed to be showing Trion coming from it. Areas on its tri-spiked head head, shoulder spikes and whiskers seemed to be showing off the Trion. A large line of the green Trion could be seen running along the side of its body, all the way down to the large tail. As if to make it seem even more like some sort of monster, a large drill could also be seen on its face, as if it was a nose.

If the two had to say it respembled anything then they would no doubt say that it resembled an odd-looking Uromastyx lizard.

Arafune and Senshi could only stare as it crawled through the Gate until the full body could be seen.

"Where is even the core on that thing!?"

Arafune was quick to make it to the window if the classroom. His Trigger had already been activated and Egret was in his hands. The size of the Neighbor would mean it was an easy target, yet that did not mean it could be taken down easily.

He fired a single shot at the large Neighbor that seemed to do nothing against the heavily plated armor.

"Senzai, go find the other Bor-"

"Sávra..."

"What?"

Shaking his head to clear his head, Senshi turned on his own Trigger before jumping out of the open window.

"Hey!"

"I'm going to bring it over to the back of the school! There's a lot of room over there for us to fight after all!"

"Tch... Fine! I'll get the others to so we can deal with this thing!"

Senshi nodded his head, confirming he heard what Arafune had said.

He looked up the large behemoth before him as he held Raygust with one hand.

 _Now then. How am I suppose to get this thing over there without destroying the school?_

"Hm?"

Senshi tilted his head when he noticed that the Neighbor was not moving towards the school, the gate or any other place.

Unlike the usual Marmod or Bambster, this strange Neighbor seemed to be looking around as if lost. The way its head turned seemed similar to that of a child who had lost their parent at the mall and could not find anyone to help them.

Unsure as to what to do with that information, Senshi started to run. There was no set destination for him at the moment and he instead went with trying to find the weakest spot on the Neighbor.

 _As long as it is in this weird state of confusion... I should have enough time to find the core._

He put his hand to his ear while continuing to run.

"Hey, anyone who can hear me, don't attack it just yet."

 _"Why wouldn't we? It could attack the school at any time. Even if we can't get through the armor, if we attack it now then we can at least move it away from where everyone is."_

"It doesn't look like it will attack just yet. I'm trying to find the weakest parts of the body to see if we can make this easier on ourselves. Please, give me a few seconds then we can determine what to do afterwards. Is that fine?"

 _"..."_

 _"Are you sure you don't just want to see if that thing can dig some tunnels for you with that drill?"_

Senshi made a sudden stop when he heard the rather sarcastic remark towards his hobbies.

 _Dig some tunnels..._

As if on cue, a loud sound started to fill the space in front of the school.

The argue drill on the Neighbor's face started to rotate until it was nothing but a violet weapon with a loud sound. It was starting to lower towards the ground as if understanding that it would be better to attack the ground than the people.

"!"

With no hesitation, Senshi ran forward with Raygust changing shape until it was smaller than normal and in a more defensive form. It was a matter of distance that he could not cover under normal circumstances.

Determining that he could not make it in time to stop that drill from touching the ground, Senshi places a blue plate in front of himself. Once he stepped on it he moved forward with enough speed to make it in side to come in contact with the drill.

The large drill spun violently against the focused Raygust.

 _Shield!_

To add more of a defense against the drill, Senshi used yet another defensive Trigger to stack on top of his regular one.

The battle between the large drill and the two defensive Trigger was a hard one when it seemed that the Neighbor had much more Trion than Senshi did. Cracks started appearing on the two defenses as they tried to hold off the drill.

 _We'll help you out, just stay put._

The shield that had started to crack seemed to mend itself as multiple layers of defenses were put into it from different areas of the school. This created a sturdy shield against the large drill that was trying to reach the ground below them.

Multiple shots were being fired from these same directions as blades were trying their best to break through the tough armor.

"This is really pathetic. Don't think I don't see ya tryin' and failin' to take this thing on. Then again, we haven't seen this kinda Neighbor before. Fine. I'll be helpin' out too. I'll even through in a freebie and won't be tellin' any of the others about this failed attempt."

Senshi noticed multiple green lines being traced on the ground as the shields above him started to break apart from the intense power from the drill.

"These are the spikes forged from my boredom."

As if triggered by those words, multiple large blades sparing out from the ground and the green lines traced on it. Each blade was made of Trion and pierced through the tough armor of the Neighbor.

Trion started leaking out of the Neighbor.

"-!"

It let out a loud roar once more.

This time Senshi could hear something within the roar.

 _Is it...really lost?_

As the Neighbor continued to roar, more blades came from the ground and traced lines. It came to a point where the blades themselves were holding up the Neighbor in the air and had no intention of letting it touch the ground any longer.

Knowing that the other members of Border would come closer to destroy it, Senshi quickly stood up with Raygust reforming itself using his Trion.

Looking up at the Neighbor, Senshi raised up his Raygust.

 _Thruster...on._

He moved up towards the base of the drill that had stopped. Using the power behind the Thruster, as well as some Grasshopper plates, he was able to cut off the large drill and expose some of the inside of the Neighbor's face. It was amazing, in a way.

While still in the air, he controlled how he moved using Grasshopper and Raygust until he was holding onto the open face of the Neighbor.

 _I was right._

He looked at the middle of the fave and saw that a green core was imbedded into it. The green lines of Trion that could be seen from outside of the body seemed to be coming directly from the core.

"..."

Instead of destroying the core like others would want, Senshi slowly lowered his arm down to it. Once he had a firm grip on it, he pulled hard enough to rip the core out of the body. The green lines of Trion, the claws made of Trion and the whiskers made of Trion all suddenly vanished once that core had been removed.

Senshi quickly hid the core within his outfit while making sure to cut a part of his own body off and putting it in the Neighbor's broken face to make it seem like it was because the core had been destroyed that it was leaking Trion.

He jumped down from the face of the Neighbor was the blades from the ground retreated and the lines they had followed disappeared.

Arafune, Minoru, Inukai and Motoharu all started towards him.

Even when everything was said and done, even with everything seeming to come from one source, Senshi knew something that everyone did not.

A simple fact that he could not escape.

 _This was not my bad luck._


	7. Senshi Senzai: Part 2

**Disclaimer:** The chat in this chapter is based off of TheAnimeTrain's one in his stories. He was also kind enough to help with this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 7:** Senshi Senzai: Part 2

* * *

Terashima Raizō was unsure as to what exactly was being shown to him.

He had gotten a message saying that a school had been attacked by a Neighbor and that it had been taken care of by the Border members who went to said school. Afterwards, he had been sent an image of what looked to be a large lizard with robotic features.

 _This must be the Neighbor Shūsei was talking about._

It seemed rather odd with the way it was curved and the general appearance that was far different from the normal Bambster and Bander.

Taking another look at the things he had been sent, Terashima noticed a new message on his screen.

 **Quik Fix:** "See~? See~? I told you it would be worth it to see it. Seeing it up close was must have also been great. Damn. Now I am kind of jealous of Arafune and the others for having fought it."

Terashima let out some air through his nose as he began his reply.

 **Tera-zō:** "It's being sent over anyway. You will get to see it in person regardless. I'll probably do the same to check out what that is even about."

 **Quik Fix:** "You just don't get it, do you? When it gets to the base it'll be beaten after having our against our agents. That means it won't be looking like it was when active. Something like that can only be seen one time before it makes it's way into some manga that perverts the reality that it looks much cooler while active."

 **Tera-zō:** "I'm sure people at that school took pictures of it. You can probably get them to show it to you. It won't be in person, but you would at least get to see what it looked like while active. Isn't that better than not seeing it at all?"

 **Quik Fix:** "Not necessarily. Sometimes just imaging it is far better than seeing an image of it. It would ruin what you have built up in your mind and shatter the illusion you made for yourself. Reality isn't so nice that it would let something like this slide without some kind of consequences."

 **Quik Fix:** "Besides, that would mean I have to socialize to some degree."

Terashima took a sip from his drink and thought that he needed a refill soon.

The words of a fool meant nothing to him right now.

 **Tera-zō:** "Just get out of your cave for a few moments and you'll see that it isn't too bad going out. How about I invite you for drinks the next time I go with Kizaki, Kazama, and Suwa? That way you can at least go with people you know."

 **Quik Fix:** "Are those names of new models of machines? Oh. No. You mean the muscle head, the midget, and the yanki. No, thank you. I would be fine going out with you and some of the other Engineers, but that's all. I'm no good with alcohol anyway, so I would just be getting water."

Terashima took another sip from his drink while making a mental note to show this message to others.

 **Tera-zō:** "You must really be mad at not seeing that Neighbor in person. Those times are the only ones when you get like this."

 **Quik Fix:** "It's not just this time! Remember the one that had been brought in after getting taken out by Sthénos? I missed out on that one too!"

 **Engine 1:** "You aren't the only one pissed by that!"

 **Engine 2:** "Yeah! We wanted to see that when it was active too!"

 **Engine 5:** "Get out of that cave of yours so I can really show you what it means to be frustrated!"

 **Engine 1:** "Just because you haven't been getting any lately doesn't mean you can harass others like that now!"

 **Engine 5:** "Right. Sorry, Jinsoku. But I'll still smack you later for that comment."

 _How long have we been in a general chat?_

Terashima had to wonder this as he saw three notifications appear on the screen.

 **Tamakoma's Muscle, Sōya, Smoking Mystery have entered the Border Chat**

 **Smoking Mystery:** "Jinsoku! I'm gonna kick your ass! I'm not a damn yanki!"

 **Sōya:** "Jinsoku. How about I push you down until you lose some inches?"

 **Tamakoma's Muscle:** "I can't really complain here. That's nothing no one hasn't already said at this point. Although I guess I can at least drag you out for those drinks next time. As some sort of payback here."

 **Quik Fix:** "Since when were we in the general chat!? And why didn't you guys say anything until now! You decided now to come out and attack me!? Hm... Alright. Now that I know what is waiting for me, I guess it's time to reinforce my cave. Haha! Now what will you all do against me!?"

 **Everyone:** "Break through, you idiot!"

.

Terashima thought over what he was currently reading.

It had just been some nonsense that usually comes with Border members when they were on the chat. At first at least. Their nonsense had brought a realization to him as he thought more about the original conversation.

 _Break through..._

Those words rang out in his head the more he replayed them.

 _This was the second time an unfamiliar Neighbors came through. The first time we couldn't even detect it. If Sthénos, Shingai and Nanamagari weren't there then we wouldn't have know it came in the first place._

It had been a strange occurrence that no one had planned for.

Border had gotten off lucky with the first incident by it being in a more remote part of Mikado City. This second incident had happened in front of a high school, making things more difficult to deal with for Border and the directors.

The fact both incidents had happened near capable Border agents was comforting. Even the minimal damage they had done was something to be thankful for when thinking about the whole ordeal.

Terashima paused once he looked over the two incidents again.

"Wait..."

There had been similarities between the two incidents. Quite a number of them in all actuality.

 _The first is that they both happened out of nowhere._

They had not been prepared for them.

 _The second is that they both happened near our agents, who were in the city at the time._

There had been someone there to stop them.

 _The third is who had been there each time._

Senzai Squad had been at the scenes both times with their Shooter and Sniper at the first one and their captain at the second one.

"That one may be a coincidence though. The first one we didn't even detect, so it's like they just happened to be there."

He hadn't planned on thinking about the two incidents, but the conversation with his friend had brought his mind to them. It was interesting the more he thought about it, seeing as how they involved weird Gates opening and even weirder Neighbors coming through.

He heard a noise from his computer and looked down to see a new message.

 **Quik Fix:** "So how should we categorize these Neighbors? They are different from the normal ones, so I want to go parallel to that by giving them actual ranks. Oh. And not Border's normal A, B, C, S ranks. I would prefer numbers."

 **Tera-zō:** "Then what do you want to go with?"

 **Sōya:** "Whay point is there to doing that? They are just Neighbors, so we just need to know the types. Don't go trying to make things more complicated, you shut in NEET."

 **Quik Fix:** "I'm not a NEET! I work in the same place as you do, you midget!"

 **Sōya:** "I'll take some more inches starting with you feet and legs."

 **Smoking Mystery:** "Better watch what you say, Jinsoku. You might end up with only your top half. That would make it harder for me to shoot you with less of a target."

 **Quik Fix:** "This yanki is bullying me with the midget! Someone please save me! He might even give me second-hand smoking addictions that can't be overcome since I chose not to smoke!"

 **770:** "I'll help you out. For the right price."

 **Quik Fix:** "You were your school's Treasurer, weren't you?

 **770:** "I was actually their Track Team's captain. Although I'm not a stranger to dogeza. How do you think I get out of punishments from the directors?"

 **Shinoda:** "Thank you for letting me know."

 **770:** "..."

Terashima was unsurprised and amazed when a picture appeared in the chat of Motoharu performing a dogeza for one of Border's directors.

He took a chip from a nearby bag while thinking of how weird people could be online compared to real life.

 _Yeah. Shūsei has more energy when he is messaging than in real life. Maybe he should switch that up so he won't have those two going for his head on a regular basis._

He nodded his head and made an actual note to tell his friend that later.

 **Tera-zō:** "Back on topic. Shūsei. What did you have in mind for the rankings? I sorta agree with Kazama about not needing any ranking for them, but I'll at least hear you out."

 **Quik Fix:** "And this is why you are my favorite above those other three. You have some actual sense and don't go picking fights with mailboxes."

 **Sōya:** "Alright. I'll make sure you end up short enough to where I have to bend down to smack your head."

 **Sōya has left the Border Chat**

 **Tamakoma's Muscle:** "Jinsoku, you should probably do that reinforcement and hire Motoharu."

 **Quik Fix:** "Got it. But he's so small that he mightactuallu squeeze through. I'll still do it though. Motoharu, how much are you charging?"

 **770:** "There's nothing to worry about. How much can you pay? 980 yen?"

 **Quik Fix:** "Don't ask the impossible."

 **770:** "Then how about 300 yen?"

 **Quik Fix:** "Maybe if this was yesterday."

 **770:** "What about 86 yen?"

 **Quik Fix:** "What? You expect me to go without dinner? Don't be ridiculous."

 **Tera-zo:** "Um, Shūsei, I'm hearing a lot of very troublesome statements that have nothing to do with the topic at hand..."

 **770:** "We'll discuss this later."

 **Quik Fix:** ""

Terashima tilted his head at the blank message.

It was the one that followed that made him understand.

 **Quik Fix has been force ejected due to an outside force.**

 **Smoking Mystery:** "...It's creepy how accurate even that was."

 **Umi:** "Thank you."

 _Poor Shūsei. May your soul rest in peace and among machines._

* * *

 _Everyone seems so lively today._

Senshi was unsure how to react to the strange chat that was going on before his eyes.

"Senzai, pay attention when I'm talking here!"

He looked forward and down at the older man who was glaring up at him. With so sense of self preservation he was unsure how to act when glared at with such ferocity that would normally make others cower back.

Kinuta continued to glare up at him while he went through the chat messages.

As some who was involved with the second incident, and someone who had supposedly seen the inside of the Trion Solder, he had been called over by Kinuta to confirm some things. One of those things had been their current topic.

"After looking over the Trion Soldier we found that it didn't have a core. We wanted to know if you had found a core when you looked inside of it."

Senshi hadn't taken too many precautions to ensure he wouldn't be seen when looking inside, so this kind of thing was to be expected.

"What's more is that the first incident was similar. The damn thing didn't have a core inside it either. It's odd at it was like that. From what we have been told, and what we have seen from others, when it was active the Trion could be seen on the outside, decorating it like a show. After it was taken out, all those decorations came off." Kinuta narrowed his eyes further towards the boy. "And both times had involved your squad. The first with your Shooter and Sniper, the second with you yourself. To say that's a coincidence..."

It was understandable.

There were too many things that lined up perfectly to think that Senzai Squad was actually the cause for these incidents. They seemed to attract these odd Trion Soldiers towards them somehow.

Senshi would have been able to blame it on his Side Effect, but it would have been a form self preservation to keep from getting in trouble. With his lack of self preservation and danger it had not even crossed his mind in the first place.

Yet there was one thing he would do for someone else instead of himself.

"No, sir. I did not find a core in the Neighbor. I am unsure as to what happened."

He would lie for someone else.

"As for my team. I can assure you that Sthénos and Ite being there is just happenstance. From what Ite told me, Nanamagari-san was also with them at the time. What's more is that there were multiple agents at my school at the time of the second incident." He finished his fight with his final words. "Please don't assume that my team is at fault for random events."

Kinuta huffed up at the boy while looking the other way.

There was an understanding that Senshi's words were not meant to be rude, rather, they were suppose to provide protection for his team from any accusations by the directors and anyone else wanting to mess with them.

That may have been the reason Kinuta let go of the conversation with a breath through his nose.

"You make it sound like some kind of festival. The only ones I actively hear saying things like that are Akasora, Shinoda, and Rindō. As long as you don't end up like those guys, we will be fine enough."

"Oh? Do multiple fights count as a festival? I was unaware of that. Although... That does make sense as to why some of our agents enjoy solo matches to much."

Senshi out a hand to his chin as he went through some of his memories.

"Now that I think about it. Didn't Rome have colosseum and Greece had the Olympics as a replacement for those violent presentations? Those are considered festivals, so it is fine enough to think that these fights against Neighbors are festivals that we take part in. I suppose the B-Rank Wars are a better festival though."

"I'll do you a favor and pretend I didn't hear that."

Kinuta let out another huff before turning on his heels and starting to walk away.

Senshi responded to departure with a bow that went unseen by the older man.

Once Kinuta was out of sight, he tilted his head a bit.

"I suppose I should say 'I got lucky this time', right?"

But that wasn't right.

He was the person with a Side Effect that only brought about bad luck. To say he was "lucky" was to reject a big part of himself.

After such a long time, some of which he found rather hard to remember, he had come to the understanding that he was not needed as a lucky charm but a walking disaster for others.

"I think someone like Sekai would let out a sigh and say something like, 'These thoughts are really irritating. But... I suppose it's just something I have to deal with at this point.' Or something like that."

"It's actually a bit strange how close you are to mimicking his voice. Can you do that for everyone or is it just those of you who gave something up awhile ago?"

"We didn't choose to give anything up. It was just how things turned out for us latter three. The top three simply had their own reasons for that kind of thing. Any more information has to come from them."

Senshi turned around when he heard the voice behind him reach its peak by being closer to him.

"I am sorry. I shouldn't have said anything after what you told me."

Kurauchi looked away while getting a direct look from Senshi.

The unlucky boy shook his head, fully aware that it meant nothing to Kurauchi at this point.

"I should be apologizing myself. I shouldn't have told you to begin with. It was my fault in thinking that you would be able to handle that kind of information without any warning. I shouldn't have relied on you like that when we had only begun to be friends."

The words were not meant to harm Kurauchi, but they had their impact that reached to his heart. It had been a moment where all guards were down and something had been told. That single moment had lead to something neither had expected in the form of words that could never be taken back.

Senshi knew this and kept his chin up, making sure that he would be ready to hold eye contact at any point in their conversation.

"I should thank you for continuing to be so casual with me. I find it a bit strange, but that may just he because of who I am more so than a lack of knowledge. Either way, I still view you as a trusted person, so you can go ahead and ignore my words again."

"I never did ignore your words. That may also be because of who you are more so than anything else."

 _We are both rather selfish when speaking to each other. Starting off our sentences with "I" so much really is a selfish conversation between the two of us._

Senshi found his mind start to wander towards others he knew who had their own sorts of conversations.

Yuki and Murakami always seemed to relaxed when speaking towards each other. Theirs words came so naturally to them while their body languages showed that they were fine with letting their guards down, as if knowing the other would always be ready to help them should something come up.

Minoru and Inukai were not much different than them either. The main things that came up as differences was that, while Yuki and Murakami were more physically free with how they acted, Minoru and Inukai seemed to be more calm in their own carefree demeanors. They also seemed to trust each other enough to let down some of their guard, but instead of thinking of the other being there for them, they seemed ready to be there for each other instead.

Some other people came to mind as well. Nasu and Kumagai, Miwa and Yoneya, Arafune, Hokari, and Kagami. Even ones who, even while calm and quiet in how they went about it, were irreplaceable friends.

 _I wonder where I stand with Kazuki. Most likely somewhere where he won't have to pay too much attention. It's probably the best I can get at this point._

"Well..."

Senshi blinked a few times as he was pulled from his thoughts.

Kurauchi cleared his throat as if to change the conversation.

"I also see you as a friend. As such, I wanted to know if you were alright after what had happened. I was out because of defense duty, so I wasn't there to see it myself. Some others had started talking about it though, so I felt the need to check up on you."

Senshi gave a mental apology for not properly understanding how to sympathize with him.

 _Is that really true?_ he thought bitterly.

"I'm fine. It was a 'new' Neighbor, so that was a bit surprising, but that was all. We managed to deal with it with the help of Motoharu."

"Would it be too much of a bother for you to explain everything to me?"

 _Why did you ask that instead of saying you wanted to hear a story?_

Senshi felt a sting inside of his chest but thought nothing of it. It would happen from time-to-time when he was unprepared, so there was never any reason to worry about it.

The small amount of hesitation from that sting had created a moment of silence that increased the sound of something repeatedly hitting the floor in a rhythmic tapping sort of way. This kind of sound usually came when someone was close by and getting closer.

 _Footsteps? Who is it?_

His unspoken question was answered by a new voice doing from a place closer to the ground than him.

"I want to hear this story too. Do you mind if I join in on this conversation?"

Both Senshi and Kurauchi looked towards Terashima Raizō.

"Well?"

* * *

Senshi Senzai

 **Trion -** 8

 **Attack** \- 8

 **Defense/Support** \- 5

 **Mobility** \- 7

 **Skill** \- 8

 **Range** \- 5

 **Command** \- 5

 **Special Tatctics** \- 4

 **Total** \- 50


End file.
